Wessex Tales. That is to say: An Imaginative Woman; The Three Strangers; The Withered Arm; Fellow-Townsmen; Interlopers at the Knap; and The Distracted Preacher

Initially an aspiring architect, Thomas Hardy's reputation was secured with the serial publication of his fifth novel, Far From the Madding Crowd, in a prestigious magazine. His later novels Tess of the D'Urbervilles and Jude the Obscure were considered shocking - so much so that Hardy was forced to completely rewrite the rape episode from Tess for the magazine version.