In The Three Strangers, Thomas Hardy offers a quietly ironic tale shaped by weather, custom, and the unpredictable drift of human fate. Set against the backdrop of rural Wessex, the story unfolds on the border between the ordinary and the uncanny — a place where identity flickers and appearances mislead.
With his signature restraint, Hardy lets the narrative circle slowly inward, revealing not only the secret at its heart, but something of the way justice, chance, and character meet in the dark folds of the countryside.