Thomas Hardy

A powerful critique of Victorian society's social constraints and the crushing weight of expectations. The story revolves around Jude Fawley, a working-class dreamer with aspirations of becoming a scholar at the prestigious university in Christminster. Hindered by societal norms, Jude's ambitions are thwarted at every turn, leading him into complicated relationships and heart-wrenching decisions. The novel explores themes of love, marriage, class...

"Bathsheba Everdene and the three men who love her move through a beautifully realized late nineteenth-century agrarian landscape, still almost untouched by the industrial revolution, and the encroachment of modern life"--Prelim.

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...

War threatens the rich, green fields of Wessex in Hardy's historical novel, The Trumpet-Major. The Napoleonic Wars are at their height, and upheaval and uncertainty plague British soil. In the midst of it all the impoverished beauty Anne Garland finds herself at the center of a love quadrangle. She is torn between the persistent and annoying Festus Derryman, her womanizing childhood sweetheart Bob Loveday, and the reliable and thoughtful John Loveday,...

In the twilight of his years, renowned author Thomas Hardy pens a poignant and introspective memoir, "Middle Age Enthusiasms." Through a series of candid reflections, Hardy delves into the passions and pursuits that shaped his middle years. From his love of architecture and gardening to his fascination with the natural world, Hardy paints a vivid portrait of a man grappling with the complexities of aging and the search for meaning in the face of mortality....

"In this, his first collection of short stories, Hardy sought to record the legends, superstitions, local customs, and lore of a Wessex that was rapidly passing out of memory. But these tales also portray the social and economic stresses of 1880s Dorset, and reveal Hardy's growing scepticism about the possibility of achieving personal and sexual satisfaction in the modern world. By turns humorous, ironic, macabre, and elegiac, these seven stories...

On a drunken impulse, Henchard sells his wife and daughter at a country fair. Years later, when he has become a respected and prosperous man, his wife and daughter seek him out in Casterbridge.

Based on the literary classic by Thomas Hardy about Bathsheba Everdene who is an independent woman who attracts three different suitors: a sheep farmer; a dashing soldier; and a prosperous, older bachelor. This timeless story of Bathsheba's passions explores the nature of relationships, love and resilience.