Milkmaid Rhoda Brooks cannot control her jealousy of Gertrude - a beautiful woman who has just married a rich farmer. So when Gertrude appears in her dream she cannot help but reach out and grab the arm of the woman she wishes she was. As Gertrude's arm begins to wither away in real life and no physicians are able to give her a solution, she must turn to a conjurer. Considered one of Hardy's most successful short stories, 'The Withered Arm' is unmissable for those who enjoyed the suspense of Edgar Allen Poe's 'A Tell-Tale Heart Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) was an architect by trade, but he is best remembered for the major contributions that he made to the literary world. He wrote both novels and poetry and was famed for his pessimistic outlook. The most notable of his works include 'Jude The Obscure', 'Far from the Madding Crowd', and 'Tess of the d'Ubervilles'. His gloomy prose is ideal for fans of Dickens, Defoe, and Keats.

"See if she is dark or fair, and if you can, notice if her hands be white; if not, see if they look as though she had ever done housework, or are milker's hands like mine." So Rhoda Brook, the abandoned mistress of Farmer Lodge, is jealous to discover details of his new bride in 'The Withered Arm', the title story in this selection of Hardy's finest short stories. Hardy's first story, 'Destiny and a Blue Cloak' was written fresh from the success of Far From the Madding Crowd. Beautiful in their own right, these stories are also testing-grounds for the novels in their controversial sexual politics, their refusal of romance structures, and their elegiac pursuit of past, lost loves. Several of the stories in The Withered Arm were collected to form the famous volume, Wessex Tales (1888), the first time Hardy denoted 'Wessex' to describe his fictional world. The Withered Arm is the first of a new two-volume selection of Hardy's short stories, edited with an introduction and notes by Kristin Brady.

"The Withered Arm" presents a fine blend of suspense, coincidence and gothic elements. Referring to the contemporary practice of witchcraft, Hardy has touched upon the issue of troubled relationships between men and women. Marked by striking character contrasts, a well-knitted plot and elucidative language, the story is truly engrossing. This EasyRead Large Edition has been optimized for readers who prefer a standard 16pt large type.

A level 1 Oxford Bookworms Library graded reader. This version includes an audio book: listen to the story as you read. Retold for Learners of English by Jennifer Bassett. A woman and a man . . . words of love whispered on a summer night. Later, there is a child, but no wedding-ring. And then the man leaves the first woman, finds a younger woman, marries her . . . It's an old story. Yes, it's an old, old story. It happens all the time -- today, tomorrow, a hundred years ago. People don't change. But this story, set among the green hills of southern England, has something different about it. Perhaps it is only a dream, or perhaps it is magic -- a kind of strange dark magic that begins in the world of dreams and phantoms . . .

This book draws on an extensive archive of previously unpublished quality photos, and is a superb pictorial tribute to the final years of steam operation in the region of north Devon and Cornwall.