Desperate Remedies

The first full scholarly edition of Desperate Remedies (1871), Thomas Hardy's first published novel.

Desperate Remedies (1871) is the first volume in The Cambridge Edition of the Novels and Stories of Thomas Hardy. This critical edition of Hardy's first published novel offers an authoritative text and wide ranging contextual material including a comprehensive introduction supplemented by textual and explanatory notes.Hardy's first published novel, Desperate Remedies (1871), a piece of sensation fiction that encompasses illegitimacy, murder, blackmail, impersonation, and bigamy, was originally published anonymously. Written while, in Hardy's own words, he was 'feeling his way to a method', it nonetheless contains early examples of the kinds of extreme situations and emotions that continued to play a significant role in his later plots. As part of The Cambridge Edition of the Novels and Stories of Thomas Hardy, this edition of the novel provides an authoritative text; full scholarly apparatus that allows the reader to trace Hardy's creative process; an introductory essay discussing the work's composition, publication, and critical reception; and comprehensive explanatory notes.