A Group of Noble Dames

On a rainy afternoon the members of an antiquarian club pass the time by telling one another the histories of aristocratic women from the Wessex of a century or two before. Thomas Hardy strings ten of these tales together, each narrated by a different member, from a local historian to a country surgeon. The dames face forced marriages, buried secrets, and the narrow choices open to women of rank, and Hardy relates their fates with irony and a keen sense of how the past presses on the present. Published in 1891, the collection shows his gift for the compact, fateful story. Free PDF and EPUB editions are available to download.