Desperate Remedies

Nov 24, 2025 3:16 AM

Author:Thomas Hardy,Mary Rimmer,Mary Rimmer

Desperate Remedies

Hardy described Desperate Remedies as a tale of 'mystery, entanglement, surprise and moral obliquity'.

Cytherea has taken a position as lady's maid to the eccentric arch-intriguer Miss Aldclyffe. On discovering that the man she loves, Edward Springrove, is already engaged to his cousin, Cytherea comes under the influence of Miss Aldclyffe's fascinating, manipulative steward Manston.

Blackmail, murder and romance are among the ingredients of Hardy's first published novel, and in it he draws blithely on the 'sensation novel' perfected by Wilkie Collins. Several perceptive critics praised the author as a novelist with a future when Desperate Remedies appeared anonymously in 1871. In its depiction of country life and insight into psychology and sexuality it already bears the unmistakable imprint of Hardy's genius.

Reviews

Like To Kill a Mockingbird rewritten from the viewpoint of Boo Radley

—— Scotland on Sunday

Supremely well imagined...Frequently brilliant and consistently unsettling, Summer of the Cicada will remain with you for quite a while

—— Independent

The opening scene of Summer of the Cicada lodges itself in the mind and stays there until the final page... the ferocity of the violence, combined with the matter-of-fact way the scene unfolds, leaves an unforgettble impression... It is a measure of the artistry Will Napier brings to his first novel that the harrowing subject matter does not make for a depressing read

—— Sunday Telegraph

Brilliantly disturbing

—— Scotsman

The handsome bindings are only the cherry on top of what is already a cake without compare

—— Evening Standard

A handsome, collectable hardback edition

—— Lynne Truss, The Times

In its evocation of place, or, more exactly, of places in time, the book is masterful

—— Geoff Dyer , The Guardian

Beautifully written... darkly comic

—— David Lodge

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