Thomas Hardy

A Group of Noble Dames by Thomas Hardy

A Group of Noble Dames is an 1891 collection of short stories written by Thomas Hardy. The stories are contained by a frame narrative in which ten members of a club each tell one story about a noble dame in the 17th or 18th century. Part I-Before DinnerThe First Countess of Wessex by the local historianBarbara of the House of Grebe by the old surgeonThe Marchioness of Stonehenge by the rural deanLady Mottisfont by the sentimental memberPart II-After DinnerThe Lady Icenway by the churchwardenSquire Petrick's Lady by the crimson maltsterAnna, Lady Baxby by the colonelThe Lady Penelope by the man of familyThe Duchess Of Hamptonshire by the quiet gentlemanThe Honourable Laura by the sparkAll ten stories were published in serial magazines before Hardy collected them into book form. "The Duchess of Hamptonshire" and "The Honourable Laura" were written relatively early in Hardy's career, in 1878 and 1881 respectively. "The First Countess of Wessex" and "The Lady Penelope" were written in 1888-89. Hardy revised all four of these stories significantly before adding them to the collection in 1891. The remaining six stories were written in early 1890 and published in bowdlerised form in a special Christmas number of The Graphic in December 1890. Hardy collected all ten stories together for the first time in A Group of Noble Dames, which was published in England by Osgood, McIlvaine, & Co. and in America by Harper & Brothers in 1891. The critical reception of the book was mixed