Love, and the erratic heart, are at the centre of Hardy's 'woodland story'. The romantic entanglements of Giles Winterborne, Grace Melbury, the dissolute Edred Fitzpiers and the wealthy Felice Charmond are bound up with issues of class and social status as they make their marital choices. This is the only critical edition of the novel, based on the manuscript and incorporating Hardy's later revisions.
