Hardy's masterpiece traces a poor stonemason's ill-fated romance with his free-spirited cousin. No Victorian institution is spared — marriage, religion, education — and the outrage following publication led the embittered author to renounce fiction. Modern critics hail this novel as a pioneering work of feminism and socialist thought.

Language: English

Published in: 1895

Word count: 142,204 words (≈ about 9 hours)

Copyright: This work is available for countries where copyright is Life+70 and in the USA.