Life's Little Ironies »

Victorian novelist and poet Thomas Hardy focused much of his work -- including classics like Far from the Madding Crowd (1874) and Tess of the d'Urbervilles (1891) on man's futile struggle against unseen forces. Of his rather unromantic outlook on life, Hardy once said, "Pessimism is, in brief, playing the sure game. You cannot lose at it; you may gain. It is the only view of life in which you can never be disappointed."

This collection includes The Son's Veto, which Hardy regarded as his best short story, On the Western Circuit, which his wife preferred, and the linked stories which come under the heading A Few Crusted Characters.