Description: Containing the 1892 serial version and the version that appeared in book form in 1897, this volume not only brings one of Hardy's lesser-known works to the public but also sheds light on Hardy's tendency to interweave either/or variations in his plots and fashion what he called "a series of seemings". At the center of the story is a sculptor who devotes his life to pursuing the ideal woman with a passion that mirrors his endless attempts to capture the goddess Aphrodite in stone. In both tellings he falls in love with three women in the same family, each of a different generation. In the first version he realizes his dream at the age of 60 by marrying, despite her reluctance, the youngest woman; in the second, his bride-to-be elopes with a man her own age just before the wedding.

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