Thomas Hardy vs. Charles Dickens

I became a Hardy's fan recently, but not yet Dickens', though both of them focused on human tragedy. I wonder why?
Just read some comparison of these two online and I got clues. It says that the characters of Dickens are mostly typical types from the overall population of the time, and the cause of their tragedies are mostly social problems; on the other hands, hardy's characters are mostly more peculiar and the cause of their tragedies are mostly their own personality flaws, or fate.
So may I say that the misery in Dickens' work is more transient and in Hardy's more perpetual? I suppose that the systems of societies change over time, while human nature stays forever as long as human race exist (though this should be not taken absolutely, because some social issues remain long term, and human nature also evolves).
Nonetheless, I found Hardy's world is far more fascinating than Dickens'.  

Tess of the d'Urbervilles - A Tragedy Unavoidable?

(spoilers)

Just finished reading Tess of the d'Urbervilles, the first Thomas Hardy I've ever read, will not be the last for sure. I wonder what made me to neglect this literature classic for so long. I watched movie "Tess" when I was a teenager, it somehow didn't strike me as hard as "Jane Eyre" or some other films adapted from literature masterpieces. Recently, for some obscure reasons I picked up the original book, found myself immediately drawn into the story.

There's not much I could say about this book that is not been already said by others. Tess - an astonishingly beautiful peasant girl, a "fine creature", yet unbelievably selfless even downtrodden, tries relentlessly to make a better life for her family and herself, ends up being hanged. Not even that, none of the miserable happenings befall her is her fault, but she endures them all nonetheless. The tragedy is simply beyond anyone can bare. Her ultimate sacrifice seems avoidable, as I myself already "designed" a dozen of different endings, however, I have to admit, what she does at the end - murdering Alec d'Urbervilles is completely understandable under the context. Basically, Thomas Hardy just created a flawless tragedy, let his readers continue to moan for her heroine for centuries.

"Carol In A Thousand Cities" --- More On "Price Of Salt"

 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

After being so thrilled by the ending of Price of Salt, I could not help to go back reading it again, mainly the beginning, where I thought it was slow and boring. Oh it must be I who was slow and bored, because this time I found it enchanting and necessary, so necessary that only after we read all those passages could we be prepared properly for the arrival of Carol - "an amalgamation of all qualities Highsmith admired in a woman" (Beautiful Shadow - A Life Of Patricia Highsmith, Andrew Wilson).