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An Indiscretion in the Life of an Heiress and Other Stories
This edition brings together ten stories never before collected that show the range and experimentation in Hardy's technique and subject matter as never before. In addition to the title story, derived from Hardy's unpublished first novel, this volume includes How I Built Myself a House ,
Destiny and a Blue Cloak , Our Exploits at West Poley , Old Mrs Chundle , The Doctor's Legend , The Spectre of the Real , Blue The Horse Stealer , and The Unconquerable . With an insightful introduction, this edition takes the reader beyond the usual Hardy canon.
Destiny and a Blue Cloak , Our Exploits at West Poley , Old Mrs Chundle , The Doctor's Legend , The Spectre of the Real , Blue The Horse Stealer , and The Unconquerable . With an insightful introduction, this edition takes the reader beyond the usual Hardy canon.
312 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1992
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68 people want to read
About the author
Thomas Hardy
2,424 books6,850 followersThomas Hardy, OM, was an English author of the naturalist movement, although in several poems he displays elements of the previous romantic and enlightenment periods of literature, such as his fascination with the supernatural. He regarded himself primarily as a poet and composed novels mainly for financial gain.
The bulk of his work, set mainly in the semi-fictional land of Wessex, delineates characters struggling against their passions and circumstances. Hardy's poetry, first published in his 50s, has come to be as well regarded as his novels, especially after The Movement of the 1950s and 1960s.
The term cliffhanger is considered to have originated with Thomas Hardy's serial novel A Pair of Blue Eyes in 1873. In the novel, Hardy chose to leave one of his protagonists, Knight, literally hanging off a cliff staring into the stony eyes of a trilobite embedded in the rock that has been dead for millions of years. This became the archetypal — and literal — cliff-hanger of Victorian prose.
Excerpted from Wikipedia.
The bulk of his work, set mainly in the semi-fictional land of Wessex, delineates characters struggling against their passions and circumstances. Hardy's poetry, first published in his 50s, has come to be as well regarded as his novels, especially after The Movement of the 1950s and 1960s.
The term cliffhanger is considered to have originated with Thomas Hardy's serial novel A Pair of Blue Eyes in 1873. In the novel, Hardy chose to leave one of his protagonists, Knight, literally hanging off a cliff staring into the stony eyes of a trilobite embedded in the rock that has been dead for millions of years. This became the archetypal — and literal — cliff-hanger of Victorian prose.
Excerpted from Wikipedia.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
June 29, 2022
It has been awhile since I read Thomas Hardy and was quite happy to read this truly tragic romantic story, "An Indiscretion in the Life of an Heiress". Throughout this story I kept changing my mind about if I liked Geraldine but came away liking her and wishing the story had a happier ending. I was also surprised at the turn of events thinking it would be quite different. I absolutely look forward to reading Hardy again.
This story about a poor man and rich woman shows how much class distinction and staying with your kind was the norm.
Story in short - A young school teacher saves a young lady's life and falls in love though he knows it is impossible.
I didn't read this edition but from a Delphi collection of his works which included the below about the lost rejected manuscript. Hardy wrote "An Indiscretion in the Life of an Heiress" in 1878 in response to trying to rewrite his lost story.
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 97
THE POOR MAN AND THE LADY This was the title of Hardy’s very first novel, written in 1867 and never published. After the manuscript had been rejected by several publishers, Hardy gave up his attempts to sell the novel in its original form. Nevertheless, he used some of the novel’s scenes and themes in later works, particularly in the poem “The Poor Man and the Lady” and in the novella An Indiscretion in the Life of an Heiress (1878).
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 102
Sadly, the manuscript no longer exists. Hardy destroyed the last surviving fragment in his last years, after giving up an attempt of rewriting the novel. This is the surviving poem based on the lost novel, with the novella (An Indiscretion in the Life of an Heiress) following: AN EXPOSTULATION The Poor Man and the Lady Why want to go afar
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 109
Where pitfalls are, When all we swains adore Your featness more and more As heroine of our artless masquings here, And count few Wessex’ daughters half so dear? Why paint your appealing face, When its born grace Is such no skill can match With powder, puff, or patch, Whose every touch defames your bloomfulness,
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 116
And with each stain increases our distress? Yea, is it not enough That (rare or rough Your lines here) all uphold you, And as with wings enfold you, But you must needs desert the kine-cropt vale Wherein your foredames gaily filled the pail?
➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 159
As the youthful schoolmaster gazed, and all these details became dimmer, her face was modified in
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 159
his fancy, till it seemed almost to resemble the carved marble skull immediately above her head. The thought was unpleasant enough to arouse him from his half-dreamy state, and he entered on rational considerations of what a vast gulf lay between that lady and himself, what a troublesome world it was to live in where such divisions could exist, and how painful was the evil when a man of his unequal history was possessed of a keen susceptibility.
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 163
Now a close observer, who should have happened to be near the large pew, might have noticed before the light got low that the interested gaze of the young man had been returned from time to time by the young lady, although he, towards whom her glances were directed, did not perceive the fact. It would have been guessed, that something in the past was common to both, notwithstanding their difference in social standing. What that was may be related in a few words.
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 168
The machine had been hired by a farmer who was a relative of the schoolmaster’s, and when it was set going all the people round about came to see it work. It was fixed in a corner of a field near the main road, and in the afternoon a passing carriage stopped outside the hedge. The steps were
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 170
let down, and Miss Geraldine Allenville, the young woman whom we have seen sitting in the church pew, came through the gate of the field towards the engine.
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 174
The girl looked with interest at the whizzing wheels, asked questions of the old farmer, and remained in conversation with him for some time, the schoolmaster standing a few paces distant, and looking more or less towards her. Suddenly the expression of his face changed to one of horror; he was by her side in a moment, and, seizing hold of her, he swung her round by the arm to a distance of several feet. In speaking to the farmer she had inadvertently stepped backwards, and had drawn so near to the band
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 178
which ran from the engine to the drum of the thresher that In another moment her dress must have been caught, and she would have been whirled round the wheel as a mangled carcase. As soon as the meaning of the young man’s act was understood by her she turned deadly pale and nearly fainted. When she was well enough to walk, the two men led her to the carriage, which had been standing outside the hedge all the time. “You have saved me from a ghastly death!” the agitated girl
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 181
murmured to the schoolmaster. “Oh! I can never forget it!” and then she sank into the carriage and was driven away. On account of this the schoolmaster had been invited to Tollamore House to explain the incident to the squire, the young lady’s only living parent. Mr. Allenville thanked her preserver, inquired the history of his late father, a painter of good family, but unfortunate and improvident; and finally told his visitor that, if he were fond of study, the library of the house
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 185
was at his service. Geraldine herself had spoken very impulsively to the young man — almost, indeed, with imprudent warmth — and his tender interest in her during the church service was the result of the sympathy she had shown. And thus did an emotion, which became this man’s sole motive power through many following years, first arise and establish itself. Only once more did she lift her eyes to where he sat, and it was when they all stood up before leaving. This time he noticed the glance.
❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌spoiler alert ❌❌❌❌❌
I had thought Geraldine was going to marry Lord Bretton and was quite shocked when she ran away from home and into her lover's arms, Egbert, though he was still had not achieved wealth. He had started to have fame after they decided that he should gain his right to her but 5 years later she saw the difference in their position, so she told him it was useless but after seeing Egbert at the church, she knows she cannot marry Bretton. She did not love her father's choice and decided to let Egbert take control of their future. I was not a fan of Geradine until she finally chose Egbert. After they eloped I wanted her father to be happy for her but his ways made Geraldine afraid and that fright caused her death. Egbert should have gone in with his wife and maybe she would have felt strength. It seemed Egbert knew nothing of her previous illness, I wonder if it was after she first met him or when she was younger. He had saved her life once but he was helpless after her attack. Her father should have sought her out as soon as she was married and realised it was too late and he must do his best. I think it will be a long time that he marries again, if he ever does and then it will be not as he loved Geraldine. Egbert's grandfather telling his grandson that he thinks Miss Allenville will be a gambler was his way to scare his grandson from the young lady but it was indeed unfair.
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 189
Her look of recognition led his feelings onward yet another stage. Admiration grew to be attachment; he even wished that he might own her, not exactly as a wife, but as a being superior to himself in the sense in which a servant may be said to own a master. He would have cared to possess her in order to exhibit her glories to the world, and he scarcely even thought of her ever loving him.
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 213
“Miss Allenville wishes to speak to you, Mr. Mayne.” The schoolmaster went to the porch — he was a very young man to be called a schoolmaster — his heart beating with excitement.
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 223
He turned and looked at her as she stood among the children. To his eyes her beauty was indescribable. Before he had met her he had scarcely believed that any woman
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 224
in the world could be so lovely.
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 252
Mayne was puzzled to hear her talk in this tone of maturity. That such questions of success and failure should have occupied his own mind seemed natural, for they had been forced upon him by the difficulties he had encountered in his pursuit of a career. He was not just then aware how very unpractical the knowledge of this sage lady of seventeen really was; that it was
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 254
merely caught up by intercommunication with people of culture and experience, who talked before her of their theories and beliefs till she insensibly acquired their tongue.
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 268
The place and the manner of her sitting were defined by the position of her chair, and by the books, maps, and prints scattered round it. Her “I shall always remember,”
Highlight (Yellow) and Note | Location 270
he repeated to himself, aye, a hundred times; and though he knew the plain import of the words, he could not help toying with them, looking at them from all points, and investing them with extraordinary meanings.
*** Egbert Mayne is the young school teacher that during a new farm demonstration he saved young 17 year old Miss Geraldine Allenville from death. He starts to love her but her position is so above his. She comes to thank him at the school house.
This story about a poor man and rich woman shows how much class distinction and staying with your kind was the norm.
Story in short - A young school teacher saves a young lady's life and falls in love though he knows it is impossible.
I didn't read this edition but from a Delphi collection of his works which included the below about the lost rejected manuscript. Hardy wrote "An Indiscretion in the Life of an Heiress" in 1878 in response to trying to rewrite his lost story.
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 97
THE POOR MAN AND THE LADY This was the title of Hardy’s very first novel, written in 1867 and never published. After the manuscript had been rejected by several publishers, Hardy gave up his attempts to sell the novel in its original form. Nevertheless, he used some of the novel’s scenes and themes in later works, particularly in the poem “The Poor Man and the Lady” and in the novella An Indiscretion in the Life of an Heiress (1878).
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 102
Sadly, the manuscript no longer exists. Hardy destroyed the last surviving fragment in his last years, after giving up an attempt of rewriting the novel. This is the surviving poem based on the lost novel, with the novella (An Indiscretion in the Life of an Heiress) following: AN EXPOSTULATION The Poor Man and the Lady Why want to go afar
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 109
Where pitfalls are, When all we swains adore Your featness more and more As heroine of our artless masquings here, And count few Wessex’ daughters half so dear? Why paint your appealing face, When its born grace Is such no skill can match With powder, puff, or patch, Whose every touch defames your bloomfulness,
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 116
And with each stain increases our distress? Yea, is it not enough That (rare or rough Your lines here) all uphold you, And as with wings enfold you, But you must needs desert the kine-cropt vale Wherein your foredames gaily filled the pail?
➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 159
As the youthful schoolmaster gazed, and all these details became dimmer, her face was modified in
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 159
his fancy, till it seemed almost to resemble the carved marble skull immediately above her head. The thought was unpleasant enough to arouse him from his half-dreamy state, and he entered on rational considerations of what a vast gulf lay between that lady and himself, what a troublesome world it was to live in where such divisions could exist, and how painful was the evil when a man of his unequal history was possessed of a keen susceptibility.
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 163
Now a close observer, who should have happened to be near the large pew, might have noticed before the light got low that the interested gaze of the young man had been returned from time to time by the young lady, although he, towards whom her glances were directed, did not perceive the fact. It would have been guessed, that something in the past was common to both, notwithstanding their difference in social standing. What that was may be related in a few words.
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 168
The machine had been hired by a farmer who was a relative of the schoolmaster’s, and when it was set going all the people round about came to see it work. It was fixed in a corner of a field near the main road, and in the afternoon a passing carriage stopped outside the hedge. The steps were
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 170
let down, and Miss Geraldine Allenville, the young woman whom we have seen sitting in the church pew, came through the gate of the field towards the engine.
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 174
The girl looked with interest at the whizzing wheels, asked questions of the old farmer, and remained in conversation with him for some time, the schoolmaster standing a few paces distant, and looking more or less towards her. Suddenly the expression of his face changed to one of horror; he was by her side in a moment, and, seizing hold of her, he swung her round by the arm to a distance of several feet. In speaking to the farmer she had inadvertently stepped backwards, and had drawn so near to the band
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 178
which ran from the engine to the drum of the thresher that In another moment her dress must have been caught, and she would have been whirled round the wheel as a mangled carcase. As soon as the meaning of the young man’s act was understood by her she turned deadly pale and nearly fainted. When she was well enough to walk, the two men led her to the carriage, which had been standing outside the hedge all the time. “You have saved me from a ghastly death!” the agitated girl
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 181
murmured to the schoolmaster. “Oh! I can never forget it!” and then she sank into the carriage and was driven away. On account of this the schoolmaster had been invited to Tollamore House to explain the incident to the squire, the young lady’s only living parent. Mr. Allenville thanked her preserver, inquired the history of his late father, a painter of good family, but unfortunate and improvident; and finally told his visitor that, if he were fond of study, the library of the house
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 185
was at his service. Geraldine herself had spoken very impulsively to the young man — almost, indeed, with imprudent warmth — and his tender interest in her during the church service was the result of the sympathy she had shown. And thus did an emotion, which became this man’s sole motive power through many following years, first arise and establish itself. Only once more did she lift her eyes to where he sat, and it was when they all stood up before leaving. This time he noticed the glance.
❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌spoiler alert ❌❌❌❌❌
I had thought Geraldine was going to marry Lord Bretton and was quite shocked when she ran away from home and into her lover's arms, Egbert, though he was still had not achieved wealth. He had started to have fame after they decided that he should gain his right to her but 5 years later she saw the difference in their position, so she told him it was useless but after seeing Egbert at the church, she knows she cannot marry Bretton. She did not love her father's choice and decided to let Egbert take control of their future. I was not a fan of Geradine until she finally chose Egbert. After they eloped I wanted her father to be happy for her but his ways made Geraldine afraid and that fright caused her death. Egbert should have gone in with his wife and maybe she would have felt strength. It seemed Egbert knew nothing of her previous illness, I wonder if it was after she first met him or when she was younger. He had saved her life once but he was helpless after her attack. Her father should have sought her out as soon as she was married and realised it was too late and he must do his best. I think it will be a long time that he marries again, if he ever does and then it will be not as he loved Geraldine. Egbert's grandfather telling his grandson that he thinks Miss Allenville will be a gambler was his way to scare his grandson from the young lady but it was indeed unfair.
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 189
Her look of recognition led his feelings onward yet another stage. Admiration grew to be attachment; he even wished that he might own her, not exactly as a wife, but as a being superior to himself in the sense in which a servant may be said to own a master. He would have cared to possess her in order to exhibit her glories to the world, and he scarcely even thought of her ever loving him.
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 213
“Miss Allenville wishes to speak to you, Mr. Mayne.” The schoolmaster went to the porch — he was a very young man to be called a schoolmaster — his heart beating with excitement.
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 223
He turned and looked at her as she stood among the children. To his eyes her beauty was indescribable. Before he had met her he had scarcely believed that any woman
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 224
in the world could be so lovely.
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 252
Mayne was puzzled to hear her talk in this tone of maturity. That such questions of success and failure should have occupied his own mind seemed natural, for they had been forced upon him by the difficulties he had encountered in his pursuit of a career. He was not just then aware how very unpractical the knowledge of this sage lady of seventeen really was; that it was
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 254
merely caught up by intercommunication with people of culture and experience, who talked before her of their theories and beliefs till she insensibly acquired their tongue.
Highlight (Yellow) | Location 268
The place and the manner of her sitting were defined by the position of her chair, and by the books, maps, and prints scattered round it. Her “I shall always remember,”
Highlight (Yellow) and Note | Location 270
he repeated to himself, aye, a hundred times; and though he knew the plain import of the words, he could not help toying with them, looking at them from all points, and investing them with extraordinary meanings.
*** Egbert Mayne is the young school teacher that during a new farm demonstration he saved young 17 year old Miss Geraldine Allenville from death. He starts to love her but her position is so above his. She comes to thank him at the school house.
April 28, 2025
Not a great novel but as Hardy's earliest full length work, it is a fascinating way to see how he started his career. The awkward plotting is on full display, but his style and character types are definitely already gelling. It's short and entertaining, but certainly not up to his later works!
July 13, 2025
Clearly an early work. Too complicated - it tied itself in knots. The characters were caricatures. Thank goodness he improved with practise!
January 24, 2016
It's kind of fun reading these stories that were never collected, and some of which were never published because it shows how a great writer can sometimes not succeed in his craft. It gives me hope. Some of the stories are pretty good, and there are some good moments as well. It's an interesting read.
June 1, 2016
Of interest I suppose if you're a Hardy fanatic and want to see some of his paths not taken, but by and large not a particularly interesting collection, I thought.
August 20, 2012
This was Thomas Hardy's first book, a rather short one, and it shows. It is boring, written rather stunted, and none of the character's are drawn out. The best thing about it is it's lenght.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews