Desperate Remedies [with Biographical Introduction]

Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) dreamed since childhood of becoming a poet. However, he produced several popular works that cemented his reputation as a great novelist of the Victorian period, and earned him the admiration of later writers like D. H. Lawrence and Virginia Woolf. He achieved greatness in the fiction genre early on, writing novels for a living until his mid-fifties, then abandoning fiction entirely in order to devote himself to his true passion - poetry. Hardy's stories are noted for their nuances of Romantic and Enlightenment thinking, particularly elements of the supernatural. "Desperate Remedies", a brilliant but neglected novel, was the first that Hardy ever published. He treats the darker aspects of human passion as well as the innocence of young love, especially through a woman's point of view. It is a tale of love entanglement, mystery, surprise and moral irrationality. In it's depiction of country life and insight into psychology and sexuality, this novel is marked by the imprint of Hardy's genius.