Desperate Remedies is Hardy's first book, which he published anonymously. It foreshadows many of Hardy's favorite themes including the predominant role played by nature in all of his work. It tells the story of a lady's maid who marries a charismatic and manipulative steward only to discover her true love was free to marry. And that her husbands first wife still lives.

Adolescence and the transition to adulthood are difficult periods for most people, but the stakes are even higher when you're a well-born young woman at the center of a complex and morally suspect social circle. That's the dilemma facing young Nanda Brookenham in Henry James' The Awkward Age, a dialogue-driven novel that some critics rank among the writer's most accomplished literary feats.