Editing Two on a Tower (section)

==Criticism==
Because the book defied the social norms of the day, upon release the book was called shocking, repulsive, and one critic called it Hardy's "worst yet."<ref>Tomalin, Claire. "Thomas Hardy." New York: Penguin, 2007.</ref> Hardy's biographer, Claire Tomalin, says Hardy was "writing for serialization, which drove him to pack in far too much plot," and he wrote too fast "without time to think or reconsider."<ref>Tomalin, Claire. "Thomas Hardy." New York: Penguin, 2007.</ref>

Hardy wrote in a letter to Edmund Gosse on 10 Dec 1882, "I get most extraordinary criticisms of T. on a T. Eminent critics write & tell me in private that it is the most original thing I have done...while other eminent critics (I wonder if they are the same) print the most cutting rebukes you can conceive—show me (to my amazement) that I am quite an immoral person...”<ref>{{citation|title=Thomas Hardy's 'poetical matter' notebook|isbn = 9780191551789|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_v58KnjEI5sC&q=purdy+and+milgate&pg=PR16|last1 = Dalziel|first1 = Pamela|last2 = Millgate|first2 = Michael|date = 29 January 2009| publisher=OUP Oxford }}</ref>