Desperate Remedies

novel by Hardy

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June 25, 2026

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Desperate Remedies is an early novel by Thomas Hardy, published in 1871. It was influenced by the "sensation" fiction popular at the time, exemplified by authors like Wilkie Collins. The novel was a departure from Hardy's initial attempt at a class-conscious novel, The Poor Man and the Lady, which was never published. Hardy is best known for his later novels, such as Tess of the d'Urbervilles and Jude the Obscure, which are celebrated for their sympathetic portrayals of working-class characters and their challenges to societal norms.12

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Thomas Hardy
Early life and works
…result was the densely plotted Desperate Remedies (1871), which was influenced by the contemporary “sensation” fiction of Wilkie Collins. In his next novel, however, the brief and affectionately humorous idyll Under the Greenwood Tree (1872), Hardy found a voice much more distinctively his own. In this book he evoked, within…
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…result was the densely plotted Desperate Remedies (1871), which was influenced by the contemporary “sensation” fiction of Wilkie Collins. In his next novel, however, the brief and affectionately humorous idyll Under the Greenwood Tree (1872), Hardy found a voice much more distinctively his own. In this book he evoked, within…
Read More