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These stories of Thomas Hardy's Wessex include 'The Three Strangers', in which an escaped convict, the hangman come to execute him and the convict's brother…
These stories of Thomas Hardy's Wessex include 'The Three Strangers', in which an escaped convict, the hangman come to execute him and the convict's brother all take shelter in the same shepherd's cottage on a stormy night; 'The Withered Arm', in which a young farmer's wife's arm withers after a jealous milkmaid dreams of attacking her, and the only cure is to touch the neck of a hanged man; and tales of smugglers, soldiers and village loves.
Context and significance
Hardy published the collection in 1888, drawing on the folklore, superstitions and true stories of the Dorset of his childhood. Read Hardy's The Mayor of Casterbridge, and see his life.
About the author
Thomas Hardy (1840–1928) was the son of a stonemason in a Dorset hamlet and trained as an architect, restoring country churches. His novels, set in the imaginary region of Wessex, began with modest success, and Far from the Madding Crowd (1874) allowed him to write full time.
After the storm of criticism over Jude the Obscure in 1895 he gave up novels for poetry and wrote some of the best English poems of the twentieth century, many of them about his first wife Emma after her death. His ashes were buried in Westminster Abbey and his heart in his home parish.