With a new Introduction by Cedric Watts, Research Professor of English, University of Sussex.
A Pair of Blue Eyes, though early in the sequence of Hardy´s novels, is lively and gripping. Its dramatic cliff-hanging episode, for example, is at once tense, ironic, feministic and erotic.
With settings in Wessex and London, the novel also has some strongly autobiographical features, as the blue-eyed heroine, Elfride Swancourt, is based largely on Emma Gifford, who became Thomas Hardy´s first wife. Elfride´s vivacious nature attracts several lovers, but she is beset by sexual prejudice, and the ensuing ironies reveal the constraints of her times.
A Pair of Blue Eyes provides an engaging and moving experience for today´s readers.