Thomas Hardy Boeken

Under the influence of rum, Michael Henchard sells his wife and daughter to a sailor. Years later, the widowed wife returns to find her husband the Mayor of Casterbridge.

This collection presents five classic horror stories that delve into themes of unsettling dread and the unknown. Each tale, from Grant Allen's eerie "Pallinghurst Barrow" to H.P. Lovecraft's chilling "The Very Old Folk," explores the darker aspects of human experience. Notable works like Arthur Machen's "The Great God Pan" and Thomas Hardy's "The Withered Arm" contribute to an atmosphere of suspense and terror, ensuring a sleepless night for readers seeking the macabre.

The book presents a collection of stories featuring noble women, originally published in 1891. Each tale explores the lives, challenges, and complexities faced by these characters, offering insights into their societal roles and personal struggles. The reprint maintains the integrity of the original text, allowing contemporary readers to experience the rich narratives and themes that reflect the era's cultural nuances.

The phrase `life's little ironies' is now proverbial, but it was coined by Hardy as the title for this, his third volume of short stories. While the tales and sketches reflect many of the strengths and themes of the great novels, they are powerful works in their own right. Unified by his quintessential irony, strong visual sense, and engaging characters, they deal with the tragic and the humorous, the metaphysical and the magical. The collection displays the whole range of Hardy's art as a writer of fiction, from fantasy to uncompromising realism, and from the loving re-creation of a vanished rural world to the repressions of fin-de-siecle bourgeois life.

Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made available for future generations to enjoy.

Five novels are augmented by a biographical introduction and enhanced with contemporary photographs of the Wessex landscape

A vivid and authentic re-creation of Hardy's own childhood environment. The happiest of all Hardy's works

HarperCollins is pround to present its new range of best-loved, essential classics. 'My life looks as if it had been wasted for want of chances! When I see what you know, what you have read, and seen, and thought, I feel what a nothing I am!' Challenging the hypocrisy and social conventions of the rural Victorian world, Tess of the D'Urbervilles follows the story of Tess Durbeyfield as she attempts to escape the poverty of her background, seeking wealth by claiming connection with the aristocratic D'Urberville family. It is through Tess's relationships with two very different men that Hardy tells the story of his tragic heroine, and exposes the double standards of the world that she inhabits with searing pathos and heart-rending sentiment.

This collection of stories by Thomas Hardy showcases his gift for creating complex and compelling female characters. From the ambitious and passionate Lady Mottisfont to the vulnerable and conflicted Lady Icenway, these stories offer a vivid and nuanced portrait of Victorian womanhood.