The Novelist (1870-1898)
Leslie Stephen at this time exercised other influences over Hardy besides keeping him at his novels. The conversation of the two men, in London and in Dorset, was reported by Edmund Gosse to have “obstinately turned upon theologies decayed and defunct, the origin of things, the constitution of matter, and the unreality of time."
Of such metaphysics in the stricter sense, however, one can find but few remaining traces until one looks at the supernatural machinery of The Dynasts and some of the later lyrical poems. All the evidence at hand seems to indicate that the consistent philosophy at the base of all of Hardy's output was less the result of erudition than the effect of the peculiar characteristics of his very individual personal temperament.
With the publication of The Return of the Native began the long series of controversies on modern art and morals which followed nearly every one of his subsequent works. "I recollect the zeal with which the late Bishop of London, Mandell Creighton, scandalized a company at his own dinner-table by what seemed then an absolutely extravagant laudation of it," wrote Gosse in 1901.
Nevertheless, popularity came but laggingly to Hardy. It is related that he once accompanied Rudyard Kipling on a search for a seaside cottage, to be shared by both authors during the summer months. They found a suitable house in the neighborhood of Weymouth, and proceeded to negotiate for its rental. Unawed by Hardy's then imposing full beard, the landlady demanded references.
"Why," said Hardy, "this is Mr. Kipling."
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