Thomas Hardy occupies the comfortable middle of the value scale, avoiding both extremes to hold the eye in a sustained middle grey. The dominant temperature is warm, with earth tones and fire-hues setting the emotional key. The absence of saturated colour is itself an expressive choice: this is a palette of restraint and atmosphere. #B8784F delivers the chromatic peak at only 3.9% - a small shot of colour with outsized visual impact. A value spread of 68 units gives the palette both depth and air - shadows are genuinely dark, lights genuinely light. The palette is recognisably Thomas Hardy's own: particular in its temperature, chroma, and the economy of its brightest note.