panRead 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.
so-soIt was an okay book, but it was extremely slow going and not much happened overall. It was a nice romance but I struggled to put the two MCs together since they don't have much in common and it felt forced. The ending was expected but it contradicts the whole plot, which took meaning away from the story. A lot of the ideas are outdated. One positive is I really liked the focus on astronomy and the descriptions overall.
"I will go away. Love dies, and it is just as well to strangle it in it's birth; it can only die once! I'll go."
Penguin English Library Two on a Tower (UK) | 
