This etext was prepared from the 1923 Macmillan edition by LesBowler.
by
THOMAS HARDY.
‘Ah, my heart! her eyes and she
Have taught thee new astrology.
Howe’er Love’s native hours were set,
Whatever starry synod met,
’Tis in the mercy of her eye,
If poor Love shall live or die.’Crashaw:Love’s Horoscope.
WITH A MAP OF WESSEX.
MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED
ST. MARTIN’S STREET, LONDON
1923
COPYRIGHT
First published by Macmillan andCo., Crown 8vo, 1902
Reprinted 1907, 1911, 1916,1923
Pocket Edition 1906. Reprinted 1909, 1912, 1915, 1918 1919, 1920, 1922,1923
Wessex Edition (8vo)1912
Reprinted 1920
printed ingreat britain
This slightly-built romance was the outcome of a wish to setthe emotional history of two infinitesimal lives against thestupendous background of the stellar universe, and to impart toreaders the sentiment that of these contrasting magnitudes thesmaller might be the greater to them as men.
But, on the publication of the book people seemed to be lessstruck with these high aims of the author than with their ownopinion, first, that the novel was an ‘improper’ onein its morals, and, secondly, that it was intended to be a satireon the Established Church of this country. I was made tosuffer in consequence from several eminent pens.
That, however, was thirteen years ago, and, in respect of thefirst opinion, I venture to think that those who care to read thestory now will be quite astonished at the scrupulous proprietyobserved therein on the relations of the sexes; for though theremay be frivolous, and even grotesque touches on occasion, thereis hardly a single caress in the book outside legal matrimony, orwhat was intended so to be.
As for the second opinion, it is sufficient to draw attention,as I did at the time, to the fact that the Bishop is every inch agentleman, and that the parish priest who figures in thenarrative is one of its most estimable characters.
However, the pages must speak for themselves. Some fewreaders, I trust—to take a serious view—will bereminded by this imperfect story, in a manner not unprofitable tothe growth of the social sympathies, of the pathos, misery,long-suffering, and divine tenderness which in real lifefrequently accompany the passion of such a woman as Viviette fora lover several years her junior.
The scene of the action was suggested by two real spots in thepart of the country specified, each of which has a columnstanding upon it. Certain surrounding peculiarities havebeen imported into the narrative from both sites.
T. H.
July 1895.
On an early winter afternoon, clear but not cold, when thevegetable world was a weird multitude of skeletons through whoseribs the sun shone freely, a gleaming landau came to a pause onthe crest of a hill in Wessex. The spot was where the oldMelchester Road, which the carriage had hitherto followed, wasjoined by a drive that led round into a park at no great distanceoff.
The footman alighted, and went to the occupant of thecarriage, a lady about eight- or nine-and-twenty. She waslooking through the opening afforded by a