Thomas Hardy

One evening of late summer, before the nineteenth century had reached one-third of its span, a young man and woman, the latter carrying a child, were approaching the large village of Weydon-Priors, in Upper Wessex, on foot. They were plainly but not ill clad, though the thick hoar of dust which had accumulated on their shoes and garments from an...

The following story, the first published by the author, was written nineteen years ago, at a time when he was feeling his way to a method. The principles observed in its composition are, no doubt, too exclusively those in which mystery, entanglement, surprise, and moral obliquity are depended on for exciting interest; but some of the scenes, and at...

On an evening in the latter part of May a middle-aged man was walking homeward from Shaston to the village of Marlott, in the adjoining Vale of Blakemore, or Blackmoor. The pair of legs that carried him were rickety, and there was a bias in his gait which inclined him somewhat to the left of a straight line. He occasionally gave a smart nod, as if...

The present tale is founded more largely on testimony-oral and written-than any other in this series. The external incidents which direct its course are mostly an unexaggerated reproduction of the recollections of old persons well known to the author in childhood, but now long dead, who were eye-witnesses of those scenes. If wholly transcribed...

The Wild and Wanton EditionAn earthy tale of country loving in 1870s England; Bathsheba Everdene is that unusual combination - a beautiful young woman who is also mistress of her own farm. Proposals of marriage are not long in coming, but with her lack of experience in judging men, how can she possibly choose between the solid young shepherd...

"e;Yea, many there be that have run out of their wits for women, and become   servants for their sakes. Many also have perished, have erred, and sinned,   for women... O ye men, how can it be but women should be strong, seeing   they do thus?"e;-ESDRAS...