Desperate Remedies

Thomas Hardy’s first published novel blends romance, secrecy, mistaken motives, and melodramatic danger into a fast-moving story of ambition and manipulation.

At a glance Desperate Remedies begins as a courtship novel and quickly turns into a tale of… Thomas Hardy builds the book around Cytherea Graye, whose precarious circumstances draw… Long before the later Wessex tragedies, Hardy is already exploring how vulnerable lives… Themes The novel explores class insecurity, dependence, deception, female vulnerability…

The novel explores class insecurity, dependence, deception, female vulnerability, chance, ambition, and the blurred line between protection and control.