Two On A Tower

Thomas Hardy's Two on a Tower is a haunting romance in which private longing is set against the vastness of the stars. Across forty-one chapters, the novel follows Viviette and Swithin as love, duty, reputation, and sacrifice pull them toward tragedy, with Hardy balancing intimate feeling against a philosophically expansive celestial backdrop. Viviette's passionate attachment to her younger lover becomes a moving study of restraint and quiet suffering, while Swithin's return from the Cape exposes the painful distance time has created between them. When he at last declares his intention to marry her, the reunion ends in heartbreak as Viviette collapses and dies in his arms. Elsewhere, a newspaper report of the Bishop of Melchester's marriage to Lady Constantine and Viviette's later letter reveal the desperate choices she has made to protect Swithin's future and an unborn child. Rich in atmosphere, moral complexity, and the cruel irony of delayed love, the novel is one of Hardy's most delicate and tragic meditations on human feeling. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.