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Zwicky investigates the advantages and disadvantages of exile for the creative process. Comparing Maurice Guest with Hardy's Jude, The Obscure, Zwicky examines their modern form and content, concluding that Richardson was unable to assert a distinct voice because she was an exile by temperament. Hardy's poetic voice can express "alienation and metaphysical isolation simultaneously" because "its identity [is] assured by history and a firm sense of its origins". Zwicky concludes that Richardson "repressed the lyricism that might have flowered in musical composition" but acknowledges that it surfaces in "arresting bursts" in Maurice Guest through Richardson's depiction of Louise.
