The Hand of Ethelberta
One of the novels that tries quite hard without actually succeeding. Unusually for Hardy, it's set to a large extent in London.
Ethelberta is the widow of a young rich chap. She now lives with her in-laws and is behaving like a very well-brought-up young woman.
But Ethelberta has a shocking secret. She is the daughter of a butler. And her mother is the sort of indolent, useless mother who could easily have come from Jane Austen. And she has loads of brothers and sisters.
In order to keep all her brothers and sisters she takes on a new profession as a teller of stories. This delights all of London society; but all the time she is employing half her family as her servants.
After all this she marries a rich, old, obnoxious lord.
There's a bit of love interest with a penniless musician, but he fails to win her in the end.
It's interesting as containing a lot of the ideas that seem to have permeated "the Poor Man and the Lady", Hardy's first novel, which was roundly rejected and no longer exists intact. It is extremely alive to social class divisions. Its rendering of the London social scene is quite heartless. But the trouble for me was that none of the characters really engaged my sympathy.
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