The Heart of Wessex

Sidney Heath traces the Dorset places behind Thomas Hardy's Wessex, linking the novelist's imagined towns with streets, churches, houses and coastal views. Dorchester supplies the starting point, with Roman remains beneath its modern buildings and familiar locations from the novels around its centre. Heath pays particular attention to architecture, explaining how Hardy's knowledge of buildings gives his fictional settings a close relationship to the surrounding countryside.

The illustrated travel account moves between literary associations and local history. Around Weymouth and Portland, castle ruins, harbours and the long pebble ridge of Chesil Beach become part of the same landscape as Hardy's characters. Descriptions of light, cliffs and sea accompany practical suggestions about viewing the coast from a boat. For readers of Hardy, the book offers a way to picture his settings more precisely; for those interested in Dorset, it records how scenery, old buildings and literature meet.