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Synopsis One of the greatest novelists of his age, Thomas Hardy was quite comfortable depicting the rustic country life. He started as a poet, wrote some remarkable novels and short stories, and returned to poetry in the last leg of his literary career. The present selection presents Hardy at his best. In includes some fascinating short stories by this great writer of fiction. The Three Strangers is an interesting tale of a culprit. The Withered Arm is really horrific. Fellow Townsmen is the story of man whom happiness eludes more than once. The woman in the story An Imaginative Woman, distracted by marriage, turns to poetry and a poet superior to herself. On the Western Circuit is the story of misplaced chance, of a young man thrown by fate against two women, of concealments and revelations at once sad and painful. The Fiddler of the Reels is the tale of the magical powers of music and dance. It is the story of a mysterious musician who casts his spell on a simple girl, leaves her with a child, and reappears with a woeful intention. Essentially, these are mostly the tales of affliction caused by marriage between disparate characters.