What he himself characteristically called ‘his idiosyncratic mode of regard' is a factor few readers of Hardy's novels can overlook and one with which all serious students of his fiction must come to terms. The fact that there is nevertheless little final agreement about the nature of his achievement has prompted Miss Vigar to make a fresh study of Hardy's own notes and essays on the art of the novel and to analyse his fictional technique in the light of these unduly neglected observations. Her approach centres on Hardy's pervasive theme of the contrast between appearance and reality and on his frequent use of ‘pictorial' devices to express his imaginative vision. She is able to develop a critical account of Hardy's work that can convincingly explain, by reference to the same criteria, both its strengths and its weaknesses, its successes and failures.