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Cytherea has taken a position as lady's maid to the eccentric arch-intriguer Miss Aldclyffe. On discovering that the man she loves, Edward Springrove, is already engaged to his cousin, Cytherea comes under the influence of Miss Aldclyffe's fascinating, manipulative steward Manston... Read Full Overview

Hardy's first published work, Desperate Remedies moves the sensation novel into new territory. The anti-hero, Aeneas Manston, as physically alluring as he is evil, even fascinates the innocent Cytherea, though she is in love with another man. When he cannot seduce her, Manston... Read Full Overview

"The beautiful things of the earth become more dear as they elude pursuit."

Thomas Hardy (2nd June 1840 - 11th January 1928), celebrated poet and writer, was born in a modest thatched cottage near Dorchester in the West Country, to a builder father. His mother came from a line... Read Full Overview

Hardy's first published novel, Desperate Remedies (1871), a piece of sensation fiction that encompasses illegitimacy, murder, blackmail, impersonation, and bigamy, was originally published anonymously. Written while, in Hardy's own words, he was 'feeling his way to a method',... Read Full Overview

In the long and intricately inwrought chain of circumstance which renders worthy of record some experiences of Cytherea Graye, Edward Springrove, and others, the first event directly influencing the issue was a Christmas visit. In the above-mentioned year, 1835, Ambrose Graye,... Read Full Overview

In the long and intricately inwrought chain of circumstance which renders worthy of record some experiences of Cytherea Graye, Edward Springrove, and others, the first event directly influencing the issue was a Christmas visit.In the above-mentioned year, 1835, Ambrose Graye,... Read Full Overview

In the long and intricately inwrought chain of circumstance which renders worthy ofrecord some experiences of Cytherea Graye, Edward Springrove, and others, the first eventdirectly influencing the issue was a Christmas visit.In the above-mentioned year, 1835, Ambrose Graye, a... Read Full Overview

Described by Hardy as a tale of "mystery, entanglement, surprise and moral obliquity", his first published novel violated the literary decorum of its day with blackmail, murder, and romance. It relates the story of Cytherea, a maid to the eccentric arch-intriguer Miss Aldclyffe,... Read Full Overview

Desperate Remedies is the second novel by Thomas Hardy, albeit the first to be published. It was released anonymously by Tinsley Brothers in 1871

In Desperate Remedies a young woman, Cytherea Graye, is forced by poverty to accept a post as lady's maid to the eccentric Miss Aldclyffe, the woman whom her father had loved but had been unable to marry. Cytherea loves a young architect, Edward Springrove, but Miss Adclyffe's... Read Full Overview

Described by Hardy as a tale of ystery, entanglement, surprise and moral obliquity, his first published novel violated the literary decorum of its day with blackmail, murder, and romance. It relates the story of Cytherea, a maid to the eccentric arch-intriguer Miss Aldclyffe,... Read Full Overview

Desperate Remedies is the second novel by Thomas Hardy, albeit the first to be published. It was released anonymously by Tinsley Brothers in 1871.Described by Hardy as a tale of "mystery, entanglement, surprise and moral obliquity", his first published novel violated the literary... Read Full Overview

Desperate Remedies is a novel written by Thomas Hardy, first published in 1871. The story follows the lives of two cousins, Cytherea Graye and Owen Graye, who are left penniless after the death of their father. Cytherea becomes a governess while Owen takes up a position as a... Read Full Overview