Outside the Gates of the World

Selected from Wessex Tales, A Group of Noble Dames, Life's Little Ironies and A Changed Man, these short stores tell of revenge, love lost, passions stifled and creeds observed; of "things eternal and universal." Everyday themes are woven in fine folkloric fashion around the enigmatic personages of the milkmaid and the burgher, the hangman and his victim, as we gather the seeds of some of Hardy's great novels.