A very dark story of manipulation and sabotage. Someone or something is destroying the seeming idyllic harmony of the Wieland family. Theodore Wieland, the patriarch of the Weiland family, begins hearing voices telling him to commit the unthinkable. Who or what is behind the voices and what is the ultimate motive behind them.
This book is part mystery and part Psychological thriller. Theodore's descent into madness is chilling and disturbing. In many ways it is a foreshadowing of Stephen King's The Shining.

A truly haunting book. The atmosphere Hardy creates with this book lingers long after you finish reading it. What eppears to be a slow pace at first eventually emerges as a steady unrelenting gate that carries the story along at a perfect pace.
The most tragic figure of the book is without a doubt,Eustacia. If she had lived in a more enlightened time or place,she would have been considered a heroic figure.There was just no place for an ambitious woman in 1800\'s Egdon Heath.If she had been a man,her ambition would have been applauded by the locals.Instead,the close minded locals look upon her as a sort of witch.
Not to give anything away,but don\'t expect a sunshine and lollipops ending.
The scene with Wildeve and the reddleman playing dice by lantern light on the heath makes stands out in my mind.