“The tragical conditions of life imperfectly denoted in The Return of the Native & some other stories of mine I am less & less able to keep out of my work. I often begin a story with the intention of making it brighter & gayer than usual; but the question of conscience soon comes in: & it does not seem right even in novels to wilfully belie one’s own views. All comedy, is tragedy, if you only look deep enough into it.”
Thomas Hardy, letter to John Addington Symonds, April 1889