One of the jewels in the crown from our visit to Shaftesbury, seeing Ox House, the model for Old Grove Place in Hardy's 'Jude the Obscure', the place where Sue and Phillotson live after their marriage:
This was my third visit to Hardy's Wessex, but the first time I'd managed to get to Shaftesbury:
My travelling companion this time round, a good old friend, believes that 'Jude the Obscure' is the finest book written in English (as did the great, old cricket commentator, John Arlott).
For me, it's right up there, competing for the honour with Hardy's 'Tess'; 'The Return of the Native'; and 'The Woodlanders', and D.H. Lawrence's 'The Rainbow' and 'Sons and Lovers'.
View D.H. Lawrence as the continuation of Hardy with the male-female polarity theme, and the pagan undercurrent to the writing.
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