Thomas Hardy

The Mayor of Casterbridge, by Thomas Hardy, is part of the Barnes & Noble Classics series, which offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the general reader, including new scholarship, thoughtful design, and pages of carefully crafted extras. Here are some of the remarkable features of Barnes & Noble Classics: • New introductions commissioned from todays top writers and scholars • Biographies of the authors • Chronologies...

Story of Egdon Heath and Eustacia Vye in late nineteenth century Wessex, England. Set in the vast, brooding heathlands of England, it lays bare the frailties of human love.

Thomas Hardy's "The Woodlanders" was first published serially in 1887. The tale takes place in the woodland village of Little Hintock and is centers around the romantic dramas of its inhabitants. The story begins with Giles Winterborne, an honest woodsman, who wishes to marry his childhood sweetheart, Grace Melbury. While the two have been informally betrothed to each other since they were young, Grace gains an education through her father's persistent...

Tess of the dUrbervilles, by Thomas Hardy, is part of the Barnes & Noble Classics series, which offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the general reader, including new scholarship, thoughtful design, and pages of carefully crafted extras. Here are some of the remarkable features of Barnes & Noble Classics: • New introductions commissioned from todays top writers and scholars • Biographies of the authors • Chronologies...

Elfride Swancourt is the daughter of the Rector of Endelstow, a remote sea-swept parish in Corwall based on St Juliot, where Hardy began A Pair of Blue Eyes during the beginning of his courtship of his first wife, Emma. Blue-eyed and high-spirited, Elfride has little experience of the world beyond, and becomes entangled with two men: the boyish architect, Stephen Smith, and the older literary man, Henry Knight. The former friends become rivals, and...

The Trumpet-Major is a novel by Thomas Hardy published in 1880, and his only historical novel. It concerns the heroine, Anne Garland, being pursued by three suitors: John Loveday, the eponymous trumpet major in a British regiment, honest and loyal; his brother Bob, a flighty sailor; and Festus Derriman, the cowardly nephew of the local squire. Unusually for a Hardy novel, the ending is not entirely tragic; however, there remains an ominous element...

Ironic short stories. "Stockdale, a lonely young fellow, who had for weeks felt a great craving for somebody on whom to throw away superfluous interest, and even tenderness, was not sorry to join her." A collection of six novellas, written in the 1880s and 1890s, about the true nature of nineteenth century marriage and its inherent restrictions.

Set in the Isle of Slingers modelled on the Isle of Portland the novel continues to explore Hardy's favourite themes of relationships, exploration of human nature and human nature. The story follows Jocelyn Pierston, a celebrated sculptor who tries to create an image of his ideal woman in stone and attempting to find her in the flesh.

The Hand of Ethelberta explores the class distinctions of Victorian England through the trials of Ethelberta Petherwin. By the age of 18, the humble governess and daughter of a butler marries well, only to become a widow two weeks later. In order to support her mother and ten siblings, clever Ethelberta quickly learns to navigate the complex social world as a poetess and storyteller, attracting four persistent suitors along the way. She must decide...

In the quaint countryside of 19th-century England, a humble milkmaid named Tess Durbeyfield embarks on a tumultuous journey of love, loss, and societal constraints. As she navigates the complexities of her heart and the rigid expectations of her time, Tess's romantic adventures unfold with both passion and heartbreak. From the forbidden desires of her first love to the tragic consequences of her second, Hardy's masterpiece paints a poignant and unforgettable...