Desperate Remedies

Blackmail, murder and romance are among the ingredients of Thomas Hardy's first published novel, and is somewhat influenced by the 'sensation novel' genre. Several perceptive critics praised the author as a novelist with a future when Desperate Remedies appeared anonymously in 1871. In its honest depiction of country life and deep insights into psychology and sexuality it already bears the unmistakable imprint of Hardy's genius and Desperate Remedies became a major commercial break-through for him as an author and let to the subsequent publishing of the string of superb novels over the next 25 years that brought him to the forefront as one of the most popular late Victorian writers. Cytherea has taken a position as lady's maid to the eccentric arch-intriguer Miss Aldclyffe. On discovering that the man she loves, Edward Springrove, is already engaged to his cousin, Cytherea comes under the influence of Miss Aldclyffe's fascinating, manipulative steward Manston who is hiding a sinister secret.