Hardy draws on the hangings, superstitions and smuggling lore of his native Dorset. A shepherd’s christening party takes in three strangers on a stormy night, a milkmaid’s curse seems to wither a young wife’s arm, and in Fellow-Townsmen two friends in a small seaport see their marriages and fortunes take unexpected turns. A woman’s infatuation with a poet she has never met opens the volume.
The best place to start with Hardy’s short fiction, full of the rural atmosphere of his novels. Download the free EPUB.