Read these Hardy novels before this one: Tess, Jude, Mayor of Casterbridge, Return of the Native, Desperate Remedies, The Hand of Ethelberta, The Trumpet Major, The Well Beloved. and don‘t read this one. It has all the Hardy hallmarks of astronomy, earnest lovers, and an unyielding English lanscape and social constructs that shape the fate of earnest lovers. But, the writing is clumsy, the science talk is too much, and the characters are dull.