A Pair of Blue Eyes

An English novel by Thomas Hardy, published in 1873. One winter day, Stephen Smith, a young assistant to a London architect, arrives in an isolated coastal village in the west of England to survey the old church, which needs restoring. Lodging with the vicar, he falls in love with his daughter Elfride, a young woman with blue eyes. But Stephen is hiding a secret: his father is a mason in that very village. The vicar opposes the marriage, and Stephen goes to work in India to make his fortune. Elfride then meets Henry Knight, a critic whom Stephen admires above all others. A sensitive novel about love and the weight of social class.