A Laodicean

A Laodicean, novel by Thomas Hardy, serialized in the European editions of the periodical Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, beginning in December 1880. The completed work was published as a single volume in 1881.

Hardy’s novels, mostly set in a fictionalized Dorset that Hardy christened Wessex, are known for their magnificent scenic descriptions, which evoke the emotional aspects of the characters’ situations to great effect. The attachment of such importance to the environment stems partly from the deterministic world-view, influenced by the scientific theories of Charles Darwin and Isaac Newton, which Hardy shared with the European Naturalists and that pervades much of his work.

A Laodicean is a half-hearted person, like the indecisive Paula Power, on whom the novel focuses. Paula cannot decide between the competing claims of her two suitors, George Somerset, a young architect, and Captain de Stancy, heir of an ancient family whose castle Paula now owns. Although she eventually agrees to marry de Stancy, she discovers in the nick of time that his illegitimate son, Willy Dare, is plotting to destroy George Somerset’s reputation. She is reunited with Somerset, whom she marries, but they are prevented from living in the castle as Dare burns it to the ground.