A Laodicean: A Story of To-day

In a village churchyard washed by late-afternoon light, a young draughtsman measures a medieval doorway with reverent precision, and Thomas Hardy immediately sets a mood of quiet beauty, melancholy, and tension between old tradition and the modern world. That figure is George Somerset, the son of an Academician: intelligent, restless, and artistically uncertain, he has drifted from architecture to poetry and back again, and now travels into the west of England in search of native Gothic forms and a steadier purpose. His reflective journey leads him to a solitary chapel where a modern red-brick Baptist building and a hymn called "The New Sabbath" stir memories, irony, and curiosity. Inside, he witnesses a baptismal rite that becomes a scene of public devotion and private crisis when a striking young woman refuses at the last moment, exposing the strain between outward piety and hidden feeling. Meanwhile, at a nearby castle, Captain de Stancy and Dare maneuver through rivalry, secrecy, and ambition as news arrives that Somerset has been appointed architect. As Paula summons Somerset to meet her, the novel deepens its web of desire, artistic aspiration, and fate. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.