The Well-Beloved
by Thomas Hardy
- First published
- 1897
- Reading level
- Plain English
- Price
- Free
About the book
"The Well-Beloved: A Sketch of a Temperament" by Thomas Hardy is a novel serialized in 1892 and published as a book in 1897. It follows Jocelyn Pierston, a celebrated sculptor who searches obsessively for his ideal woman—the "Well-Beloved"—across forty years and three generations of the same family. As he pursues this elusive vision of perfect feminine beauty, shifting his affections from grandmother to daughter to granddaughter, Pierston becomes trapped outside time, unable to settle into the natural cycle of life and love.
- Psychological fiction
- Mothers and daughters
- Man-woman relationships
- Sculptors
- Portland (England)
Updated September 2026. Public domain in the USA. Text and summary from Project Gutenberg eBook #3326. The Well-Beloved on Wikipedia.
