This collection gathers the short stories Hardy wrote from the 1870s into the 1890s, many of them Wessex tales later grouped in volumes of village irony and delayed love. Rural laborers, farmers, and local gentry meet by chance at fairs, churches, and lonely roads; a marriage, a rumor, or a returned soldier turns the plot. Recurring subjects are class, missed timing, and the small cruelty of circumstance. Dialect speech and local custom are part of the method. The book is a body of independent country stories, not a digest of the longer Wessex novels.
Title Metadata
Subject/Genre
7 Subjects| No. | Volume Title | Page Count |
|---|---|---|
| Vol. 1 | A Changed Man, the Waiting Supper and Other Tales, Concluding With the Romantic Adventures of a Milkmaid | 326 pp |
| Vol. 2 | Life's Little Ironies, a Set of Tales With Some Colloquial Sketches Entitled a Few Crusted Characters | 240 pp |
| Vol. 3 | A Group of Noble Dames | 192 pp |
Bound in varying shades of blue and grey, decorated in dark blue. Map endleaves. Dark blue three-volume slipcase with the Folio Society device in gold. Eight wood engravings. Six wood engravings. Eight wood engravings.
| Printing | Print Year | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1st Printing | 1994 | — |