Romances & Fantasies

This collection groups three of Hardy's novels that he classed as romances and fantasies rather than as studies of character and environment. A Pair of Blue Eyes follows Elfride Swancourt on the Cornwall coast between two suitors, a young architect and a London reviewer. Two on a Tower pairs the astronomer Swithin St Cleeve with the older Lady Constantine under a Wessex sky of observation and secrecy. The Well-Beloved traces the sculptor Jocelyn Pierston's pursuit of an ideal woman through three generations on the Isle of Slingers. The three books lean on coincidence, legend, and heightened attachment more than on social realism.

Full red series binding decorated in dark red. Map endleaves. Dark red three-volume slipcase. Dark red cloth. Twelve wood-engravings. Pale red-brown cloth. Eleven wood-engravings. Red cloth. Fifteen wood engravings.