Novels of Ingenuity

This set groups three early-to-middle novels that Hardy later classed as depending on incident more than on probability. Desperate Remedies follows Cytherea Graye into service and a marriage plot tangled with blackmail and a missing body. The Hand of Ethelberta traces a butler's daughter who writes verse and manoeuvres among suitors while hiding her family. A Laodicean centres on Paula Power, a railway heir who hesitates in love and in faith while an architect and a rival contend for her castle and her telegraph. The three books are separate stories, not one Wessex chronicle.

Bound in brown series binding decorated in dark red. Map endleaves. Orange or cream three-volume slipcase with the Folio Society device in gold. Eleven wood-engravings, pale brown cloth. Thirteen wood-engravings, orange-brown cloth. Eleven wood-engravings, dark orange cloth.