Thomas Hardy "tess Of The D'urbervilles & Whole Soyinka "the Lion & The Jewel"

"Tess of the D'urbervilles" by Thomas Hardy  and "The lion & the jewel" by prof Whole Soyinka which one is the greatest?

Tess of the D'urbervilles of course.

Thought you wanted to bring out some resemblance, similarities and criticism.
Was looking to read up some intelligent critism.

Its been a while since I read the Lion and the Jewel, but I think its about a young girl who was forced to marry an aging old potentate like the swazi king. The local village school teacher had his eye on her as well, but the girl eventually decided she preferred the older chief to the young teacher who i think was called lakunle.

@ topic: am not sure the two should be compared. Tess is a tragedy while The Lion and the Jewel is not.

basically, both are fantastic.
its a pity most guys that have given a reply have either not rtead soyinka\s lion and jewel or that they have read but are not too sure about what it stands to correct, though you might through out the play, the fact remains that its not just about a king trying to seduce a jewel girl thereby trashing the dreams of one school headmaster,it goes beyond that.
I wouldn\t be saying soyinka,s work is a little better because he is a nigerian like some might think am infusing sentiments or because he is a nobel or because soyinka is arole model, but because the work was simply splendid.
I wasn,t ready for this but might do my assignment and post it notwithstanding the play to ne is a poem,it couched o much political issues in itself fusing it humor and disappointment, it raised the issue of African dogmatism like in the Zimbabwe,s and other African country,the issues of egocentrism,illiteracy and malingering hegemony.
I mean it touch into the society i have lived 21 of my valuable lives, it made me see the problems and stylishly leaves me in the tunnel with light to find my way out.
To me again to poem is deep and ingenious, little do people know that the whole play was in a daybringing forth an unknown concept to the realm of literature, I know perhaps all of you have read TESS of which I have also read I just will plead to you to read LION and deeply ponder over its change oriented philosophies insidiously splashed in it, it was concerned about change in Africa I say, showing the problems and a possible solution, simply just pick it up and read it like a POEM,