The Hand of Ethelberta
A Comedy in Chapters
by Thomas Hardy 1840–1928
The book, and the century it came out of.
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. Illustrated with 60 full-page plates — paintings by Dawson, De Nittis and Renoir among them.
Young Mrs. Petherwin stepped from the door of an old and well-appointed inn in a Wessex town to take a country walk.
The Hand of Ethelberta, by Thomas Hardy, complete and unabridged. Spelling and punctuation follow present-day American usage; the sentences, the paragraphs and the voice are the author’s, word for word.
It was written in another era and may carry attitudes a reader today will find dated. They are kept for the sake of the work and do not reflect the views of this house.
- Series
- Literary Classics
- Format
- Ebook
- Extent
- about 360 pages
- Reading time
- about 7 hours
- Illustrations
- Full-page plates, credited
- Text
- Complete, unabridged
- Language
- en
- This edition
- 2026
- ISBN
- 9785501001213
60 paintings are bound into this edition
Six of them are shown here, taken from the volume itself. Each is reproduced full page and named with its painter and year.
A page from this edition
Not a mock-up: this page is taken from the finished volume. The ornament above the chapter belongs to its shelf and to no other, the opening letter is set as a drop capital, and the plate below carries the name of the painter and the year.
Both photographed from the finished volume.
The Hand of Ethelberta, first published 1876, issued in this edition by Aeneas Press in 2026 on the Literary Classics shelf. Newly set, with the ornament of its series above each chapter and a drop capital on the opening page. Illustrated with full-page plates, each named with its painter.
Published as an ebook and not issued in print by this house; it carries one ISBN, 9785501001213, and is supplied worldwide. This edition — its setting, its ornament, its cover art, and the selection and attribution of its plates — © 2026 Aeneas Press.
Questions readers ask
- Is this the whole of The Hand of Ethelberta?
- Yes — complete and unabridged. Nothing is cut, condensed or paraphrased. This is the book, not a summary of it.
- What exactly did you change?
- The spelling and the punctuation follow present-day American usage. Thomas Hardy's sentences are untouched — same words, same order, same rhythm.
- Are the pictures really in the book?
- Yes. The edition carries full-page plates bound into the text, each one named with its painter and the year it was made. Six of them are shown on this page.
- How long is it?
- About 360 pages, which is roughly about 7 hours of reading.
- What do I actually get?
- An illustrated ebook with its own ISBN, sold worldwide. One file, yours to keep, readable on any device.
