The Well-Beloved

by

Thomas Hardy

Web-Books.Com

The Well-Beloved

Preface................................................................................................................................. 3

PART I ................................................................................................................................ 4

A Supposititious Presentment Of Her............................................................................. 4

The Incarnation Is Assumed To Be True........................................................................ 8

The Appointment .......................................................................................................... 13

A Lonely Pedestrian.......................................................................................................... 15

A Charge ....................................................................................................................... 18

On The Brink ................................................................................................................ 23

Her Earlier Incarnations.................................................................................................... 26

'Too Like The Lightning' .............................................................................................. 31

Familiar Phenomena In The Distance........................................................................... 36

PART II............................................................................................................................. 39

The Old Phantom Becomes Distinct............................................................................. 39

She Draws Close And Satisfies..................................................................................... 46

She Becomes An Inaccessible Ghost............................................................................ 51

She Threatens To Resume Corporeal Substance .............................................................. 57

The Resumption Takes Place........................................................................................ 60

The Past Shines In The Present..................................................................................... 63

The New Becomes Established..................................................................................... 68

His Own Soul Confronts Him........................................................................................... 73

Juxtapositions................................................................................................................ 77

She Fails To Vanish Still .............................................................................................. 83

The Image Persists ........................................................................................................ 88

A Grille Descends Between .......................................................................................... 92

She Is Enshrouded From Sight ..................................................................................... 99

PART III ......................................................................................................................... 102

She Returns For The New Season .............................................................................. 102

Misgivings On The Re-Embodiment .......................................................................... 109

The Renewed Image Burns Itself In ........................................................................... 114

A Dash For The Last Incarnation................................................................................ 119

On The Verge Of Possession ...................................................................................... 126

The Well-Beloved Is--Where?.................................................................................... 132

An Old Tabernacle In A New Aspect ......................................................................... 140

'Alas For This Grey Shadow, Once A Man!' .............................................................. 144

Preface

The peninsula carved by Time out of a single stone, whereon most of the following scenes are laid, has been for centuries immemorial the home of a curious and well-nigh distinct people, cherishing strange beliefs and singular customs, now for the most part obsolescent. Fancies, like certain soft-wooded plants which cannot bear the silent inland frosts, but thrive by the sea in the roughest of weather, seem to grow up naturally here, in particular amongst those natives who have no active concern in the labours of the 'Isle.'