The Return of the Native, Tess of the D'urbervilles and The Mayor of Casterbridge-Thomas Hardy

Well, I gave Hardy a chance. I went in thinking that I would love his work because I am a lover of Victorian Literature, but I was three times disappointed. The first novel I tried was The Return of the Native. I was fascinated when I met Eustacia Vye in the first chapter. Initially I thought that she was going to be similar to Scarlett O'Hara, a dark headstrong beauty, spoiled and tempestuous but of strong moral fiber. Nope, she was a selfish biznatch hell-bent on destroying everyone around her.
So...strike one, the first main character of Hardy's that I didn't like.

Reluctantly, I finished the book.
Years later I decided  to try Tess of the D'urbervilles. I waded through that novel too, never really connecting with, the supposedly, "fabulous" Tess. I think I was supposed to care for her. I didn't . To me, she was nothing more than a wimpy manipulator whose main goal in life was to get all the men to fall in love with her.
Strike two against Hardy.

I grew older and thought maybe I would see something in Hardy's writing that I had missed before, as a younger person, so I tried The Mayor of Casterbridge. Nope, I couldn't stand that main character either.
Strike three.
I "get" that the best, most realistic characters should be multidimensional, but Hardy puts his characters into such gray areas, the reader can never connect with them, let alone like them. I don't have to idolize my characters, but I do have to care about them. In his efforts to write about the deterioration of rural England, Hardy succeeded. He succeeded in the same the way Charles Dicken's uncovered problems with urban Victorian life. But in the process of criticizing society Hardy made sacrificial lambs out of his characters, a mistake Dickens never made. I found little to like about the work of Thomas Hardy. I hope you have a better luck than me.