In this, his first collection of short stories, Hardy sought to record the legends, superstitions, local customs, and lore of a Wessex that was rapidly passing out of memory. But these tales also portray the social and economic stresses of 1880s Dorset, and reveal Hardy's growing scepticism about the possibility of achieving personal and sexual satisfaction in the modern world. By turns humorous, ironic, macabre, and elegiac, these seven stories show the range of Hardy's story-telling genius.

Contents:

• An Imaginative Woman
• The Three Strangers
• The Withered Arm
• Fellow-Townsmen
• Interlopers at the Knap
• The Distracted Preacher