The Life of Thomas Hardy
the completed work would consist of "three parts, nineteen acts, and one hundred and forty scenes." Such gigantic proportions were unexpected in the declining years of even such a giant as Thomas Hardy. The preface, the list of characters, the dramatic form, the supernatural machinery, and, above all, the portentous opening:
What of the Immanent Will and its designs?
were calculated to fill the gentle reader with nothing short of consternation and dismay—and they did; they still do. Reviewers very seldom got beyond expressions of petulant amazement before the ends of their articles. They scarcely recovered in time to notice the delightful scenes on the Wessex coast and the glorious depiction of Trafalgar, so absorbed were they in the provokingly philosophical "anatomy of the Immanent Will."
Part II, dealing with Napoleon's successful continental campaigns and with the English victories in the Peninsula, followed in 1906; and Part III, concerned with the disasters of Moscow and Waterloo, completed the trilogy in 1908. By this time the more discriminating readers and the less prejudiced critics had begun to discern signs of real greatness in the work. It was seen to be a magnum opus and not a monstrosity. Although it has received extravagant praise since then, sometimes from authorities of eminence, it is still comparatively unknown.
It is interesting to note the gradual conversion of its critics from frank hostility to warm approval and some measure of enthusiasm. When Part I appeared, there
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