Ethelberta, a butler’s daughter widowed young into a fashionable family, makes her name in London as a poet and teller of tales while quietly supporting her many brothers and sisters, some of whom serve as her household staff. Suitors gather, from the musician Christopher Julian to an elderly viscount, and she must decide what her hand is worth.
Hardy’s one comedy, a sharp look at class and ambition that surprises readers who know only his Wessex tragedies. Download the free EPUB.