The Hand of Ethelberta

A Comedy in Chapters

Thomas Hardy

• Publisher: Aeneas Press
• Year: 2026
• Topic: Literature
• eBook ISBN:
  9785486051210
• Subtopic: Classics
• Index: Literature

A butler's daughter has published a book of verse, married a rich man's son, been widowed at twenty-one, and now goes about London society as a lady while her father waits at table and her sisters are in service — and four men want to marry her. Hardy called it a comedy and his readers, who wanted another Far from the Madding Crowd, did not forgive him; it is his one novel about class as a performance, and the performance is brilliant.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Copyright
• 1. A Street in Anglebury—A Heath Near It—Inside the ‘red Lion’ Inn
• 2. Christopher’s House—Sandbourne Town—Sandbourne Moor
• 3. Sandbourne Moor (Continued)
• 4. Sandbourne Pier—Road to Wyndway—Ball-Room in Wyndway House
• 5. At the Window—The Road Home
• 6. The Shore by Wyndway
• 7. The Dining-Room of a Town House—The Butler’s Pantry
• 8. Christopher’s Lodgings—The Grounds About Rookington
• 9. A Lady’s Drawing-Rooms—Ethelberta’s Dressing-Room
• 10. Lady Petherwin’s House
• 11. Sandbourne and Its Neighbourhood—Some London Streets
• 12. Arrowthorne Park and Lodge
• 13. The Lodge (Continued)—The Copse Behind
• 14. A Turnpike Road
• 15. An Inner Room at the Lodge
• 16. A Large Public Hall
• 17. Ethelberta’s House
• 18. Near Sandbourne—London Streets—Ethelberta’s
• 19. Ethelberta’s Drawing-Room
• 20. The Neighbourhood of the Hall—The Road Home
• 21. A Street—Neigh’s Rooms—Christopher’s Rooms
• 22. Ethelberta’s House
• 23. Ethelberta’s House (Continued)
• 24. Ethelberta’s House (Continued)—The British Museum
• 25. The Royal Academy—The Farnfield Estate
• 26. Ethelberta’s Drawing-Room
• 27. Mrs. Belmaine’s—Cripplegate Church
• 28. Ethelberta’s—Mr. Chickerel’s Room
• 29. Ethelberta’s Dressing-Room—Mr. Doncastle’s House
• 30. On the Housetop
• 31. Knollsea—A Lofty Down—A Ruined Castle
• 32. A Room in Enckworth Court
• 33. The English Channel—Normandy
• 34. The Hôtel Beau Séjour and Spots Near It
• 35. The Hotel (Continued), and the Quay in Front
• 36. The House in Town
• 37. Knollsea—An Ornamental Villa
• 38. Enckworth Court
• 39. Knollsea—Melchester
• 40. Melchester (Continued)
• 41. Workshops—An Inn—The Street
• 42. The Doncastles’ Residence, and Outside the Same
• 43. The Railway—The Sea—The Shore Beyond
• 44. Sandbourne—A Lonely Heath—The ‘red Lion’—The Highway
• 45. Knollsea—The Road Thence—Enckworth
• 46. Enckworth (Continued)—The Anglebury Highway
• 47. Enckworth and Its Precincts—Melchester
• Sequel. Anglebury—Enckworth—Sandbourne
• About the Author