Wessex Tales, by Thomas Hardy A NOVEL (World's Classics): Wessex tales: that is to say: An imaginative woman, The three strangers, The withered arm, Fellow-townsmen, Interlopers at the knap, The distracted preacher

Wessex Tales is an 1888 collection of tales written by English novelist and poet Thomas Hardy.In the various short stories, Hardy writes of the true nature of nineteenth century marriage and its inherent restrictions, the use grammar as a diluted form of thought, the disparities created by the role of class status in determining societal rank, the stance of women in society and the severity of even minor diseases causing the rapid onset of fatal symptoms prior to the introduction of suffici...