A Group of Noble Dames

A Group of Noble dames is an 1891 collection of short stories written by Thomas Hardy. It is a frame narrative in which ten members of a club each tell one story about a noble dame in the 17th or 18th century.

Contents

Part I—Before Dinner

• The First Countess of Wessex by the local historian
• Barbara of the House of Grebe by the old surgeon
• The Marchioness of Stonehenge by the rural dean
• Lady Mottisfont by the sentimental member

Part II—After Dinner

• The Lady Icenway by the churchwarden
• Squire Petrick’s Lady by the crimson maltster
• Anna, Lady Baxby by the colonel
• The Lady Penelope by the man of family
• The Duchess Of Hamptonshire by the quiet gentleman
• The Honourable Laura by the spark

Publication

Hardy wrote the stories in 1890 and 1891. The first six were published in a special number of The Graphic.^[1] The complete collection was published in book form in 1891.

TV and Film Adaptations

Barbara of the House of Grebe was adapted as a television drama by the BBC as part of an anthology series called Wessex Tales. Broadcast 12 December 1973 on BBC2.

References

• Hardy, Thomas. A Group of Noble Dames. http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/3049. 

v · d · eWorks by Thomas Hardy Novels The Poor Man and the Lady (1867) · Desperate Remedies (1871) · Under the Greenwood Tree (1872) · A Pair of Blue Eyes (1873) · Far from the Madding Crowd (1874) · The Hand of Ethelberta (1876) · The Return of the Native (1878) · The Trumpet-Major (1880) · A Laodicean (1881) · Two on a Tower (1882) · The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886) · The Woodlanders (1887) · Tess of the d'Urbervilles (1891) · Jude the Obscure (1895) · The Well-Beloved (1897) Short story collections Wessex Tales (1888) · A Group of Noble Dames (1891) · Life's Little Ironies (1894)  · A Changed Man and Other Tales (1913) Poetry collections Wessex Poems and Other Verses (1898) · Poems of the Past and Present (1901) · Time's Laughingstocks (1909) · Satires of Circumstance (1914) · Moments of Vision (1917) · Late Lyrics and Earlier with Many Other Verses (1922) · Human Shows, Far Phantasies, Songs and Trifles (1925) · Winter Words in Various Moods and Metres (1928) Individual poems "The Photograph" (1890) · "The Convergence of the Twain" (1915) "The Darkling Thrush" (1901) Plays The Dynasts (1904–1908)