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He kept producing fiction— “Far From the Madding Crowd,” “The Return of the Native,” “The Mayor of Casterbridge,” “Jude the Obscure” — till he was in his mid-50s.

Two classic passages: - The first chapter of Hardy's The Return of the Native- The opening of EM Forster's A Passage To India How to get a story going and introduce your protagonists with maximum speed and efficiency, while developing the plot and establishing character and motivation: - The opening chapter of Fitzgerald's The Last Tycoon- The opening pages of DH Lawrence's Women in Love- The first two pages of Hunter S Thompson's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

Such dark-grained, tragic stories as The Return of the Native, The Mayor of Casterbridge, Tess of the D'Urbervilles had won him a place second only to George Meredith among the late Victorians.

Return of the Native, The, 161.

They performed the same old piece that Mr. Hardy has described in "The Return of the Native"—the same old piece that, as a little child, I witnessed years ago in a real village; but it had degenerated lamentably.