A Group Of Noble Dame

Thomas Hardy pays tribute to the triumphs and tribulations of patricianEnglishwomen in his collection of short stories A Group of Noble Dames. Aroundthe fire at... » 

Thomas Hardy pays tribute to the triumphs and tribulations of patricianEnglishwomen in his collection of short stories A Group of Noble Dames. Aroundthe fire at an inn sheltering from a storm the members of the Wessex Fieldand Antiquarian Club are each entreated to tell a story. The men all tell talesof women the Noble Dames of the title from the Countess of Wessex to theDuchess of Hamptonshire. The lives of these fictional dames are imagined byHardy based on clues from reallife genealogies and archival family records.Inventive and detailed these stories confirm why Hardy is one of the mostenduring and bestloved writers of the 19th Century. «