Follow in the footsteps of Bathsheba, Gabriel Oak, Tess, Jude, Henchard, Eustacia and a host of Thomas Hardy’s other characters to discover his fictional and poetic Wessex. An easy to use introduction to the rural landscape of the towns and villages which form the heart of Hardy’s Wessex – ‘the partly-real, partly-dream country’ of his novels and poetry. Profusely illustrated with photographs and maps, and with walks and suggested routes based upon the novels, including Far from the Madding Crowd, Tess of the d’Urbervilles, The Mayor of Casterbridge, The Return of the Native, Under the Greenwood Tree and Jude the Obscure, with detailed references to Hardy’s poetic locations, including Cornwall, Wiltshire and Oxford. The author is a Vice-President of the Thomas Hardy Society and has provided lists of the principal characters in Hardy’s work and the real and invented place-names of his fictional Wessex.
