The Woodlanders

From the author of The Mayor of Casterbridge, this novel follows a woman torn between a wealthy, unfaithful husband and the humble woodsman she truly loves. As a young woman in a small village, Grace Melbury expects to one day marry her sweetheart, Giles. But her ambitious father has decided that her upbringing would be wasted on such a man, and pressures her to wed the doctor Fitzpiers instead. It soon becomes clear that Fitzpiers has little more to offer Grace than social status. His dalliances with other women lead to the couple's gradual estrangement, and even Grace's father recognizes him as a scoundrel. But Grace's dream of reuniting with her childhood beau may be doomed to failure in this heartrending story of true love denied.