This fine novel sets in opposition two of Thomas Hardy’s most unforgettable creations: his heroine, the sensuous,free-spirited Eustacia Vye, and the solemn, majestic stretch of upland in Dorsetshire he called Egdon Heath.The famous opening reveals the haunting power of that dark, forbidding moor where proud Eustacia fervently awaits a clandestine meeting with her lover, Damon Wildeve. But Eustacia’s dreams of escape are not to be realized--neither Wildeve nor the returning native Clym Yeobright can bring her salvation.
Injured by forces beyond their control, Hardy’s characters struggle vainly in the net of destiny. In the end, only the face of the lonely heath remains untouched by fate in this masterpiece of tragic passion,a tale that perfectly epitomizes the author’s own unique and melancholy genius.
Book First: The Three Women
A Face on Which Time Makes But Little Impression
Humanity Appears upon the Scene, Hand in Hand with Trouble
The Custom of the Country
The Halt on the Turnpike Road
Perplexity among Honest People
The Figure against the Sky
Queen of Night
Those Who Are Found Where There Is Said to Ben Nobody
Love Leads a Shrewd Man into Strategy
A Desperate Attempt at Persuasion
The Dishonesty of an Honest Woman
Book Second: The Arrival
Tidings of the Comer
The People at Blooms-End Make Ready
How a Little Sound Produced a Great Dream
Eustacia Is Led On to an Adventure
Through the Moonlight
The Two Stand Face to Face
A Coalition between Beauty and Oddness
Firmness Is Discovered in a Gentle Heart
Book Third: The Fascination
‘My Mind to Me a Kingdom Is’
The New Course Causes Disappointment
The First Act in a Timeworn Drama
An Hour of Bliss and Malty Hours of Sadness
Sharp Words Are Spoken, and a Crisis Ensues
Yeobright Goes, and the Breach Is Complete
The Morning and the Evening of a Day
A New Force Disturbs the Current
Book Fourth: The Closed Door
The Rencounter by the Pool
He is Set Upon by Adversities; but He Sings a Song
She Goes Out to Battle against Depression
Rough Coercion Is Employed
The, Journey across the Heath
A Conjuncture, and Its Result upon the Pedestrian
The Tragic Meeting of Two Old Friends
Eustacia Hears of Good Fortune, and Beholds Evil
Book Fifth: The Discovery
‘Wherefore Is Light Given to Him That Is in Misery’
A Lurid Light Breaks In upon a Darkened Understanding
Eustacia Dresses Herself on a Black Morning
The Ministrations of a Half-Forgotten One
An Old Move Inadvertently Repeated
Thomasin Argues with Her Cousin, and He Writes a Letter
The Night of the Sixth of November
Rain, Darkness, and Anxious Wanderers
Sights and Sounds Draw the Wanderers Together
Book Sixth: Aftercourses
The Inevitable Movement Onward
Thomasin Walks in a Green Place by the Roman Road
The Serious Discourse of Clym with His Cousin
Cheerfulness Again Asserts Itself at Blooms-End, and Clym Finds His Vocation
The date at which the following events are assumed to have occurred may be set down as between 1840 and 1850, when the old watering-place herein called ’Budmouth’ still retained sufficient afterglow from its Georgian gaiety and prestige to lend it an absorbing attractiveness to the romantic and imaginative soul of a lovely dweller inland.
Under the general name of ’Egdon Heath’, which has been given to the sombre scene of the story, are united or typified heaths of various real names, to the number of at least a dozen; these being virtually one in character and aspect, though their original unity, or partial unity, is now somewhat disguised by intrusive strips and slices brought under the plough with varying degrees of success, or planted to woodland.
It is pleasant to dream that some spot in the extensive tract whose south-western quarter is here described, may be the heath of that traditionary King of Wessex-Lear.
July 1895
