I love [a: Thomas Hardy|15905|Thomas Hardy|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1429946281p2/15905.jpg]. This one, described as one of his "most gentle" novels, is exactly that. A sort of love triangle between a church musician (Dick Dewey), the new school mistress (Fancy Day), and the new curate (Reverend Maybold), oh, and an affluent farmer in the area, too.

Hardy's second novel, it's short and sweet and made me realize that I prefer my Hardy novels to be quite a bit more bleak and dreary to this.