I last wrote about my reading of the complete novels of Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) in chronological order almost a year ago, when I was working on his 1880 novel "The Trumpet-Major". Next up was "A Laodicean" (1881), which offers another of Hardy's complex marriage plots, along with a good deal of architecture and a bit of a grand tour on the continent. After that came "Two on a Tower" (1882), which might well be the worst novel I have ever read. It seems like whenever he didn't know what to do next, he pulled out another new character to add another twist, from a long-lost rich uncle to an unexpected brother. (Andrew Shields, #111Words, 3 November 2025)