A Pair of Blue Eyes, though early in the sequence of Hardy\'s novels, is lively and gripping.
Elfride\'s vivacious nature attracts several lovers, but she is beset by sexual prejudice, and.
With settings in Wessex and London, the novel also has some strongly autobiographical features, as the blue-eyed heroine, Elfride Swancourt, is based largely on Emma Gifford, who became Thomas Hardy\'s first wife.
Its dramatic cliff-hanging episode, for example, is at once tense, ironic, feministic and erotic.
A Pair of Blue Eyes, though early in the sequence of Hardy\'s novels, is lively and gripping