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The Hand of Ethelberta Study Day
Date: Saturday, 11th April 2026
Time: 10am to 5pm
Cost: £35 THS Members / £50 Non-Members
Venue: The Town Hall, The Corn Exchange, Dorchester
We celebrate the 150th Anniversary of The Hand of Ethelberta with an enjoyable Study Day. As well as Keynote Speaker, Professor Angelique Richardson, Exeter University, Department of English and Creative Writing and Victorian Studies, Hardy's Correspondents project, the day will include short papers delivered by Exeter University students, script readings from The New Hardy Players, and end with a harp recital.
The Hand of Ethelberta: A Comedy in Chapters is the fifth published novel by English author Thomas Hardy, published in 1876 and The Thomas Hardy Society will mark the occasion with a special Study Day, exploring the theme and other elements of the book
Subtitled "A Comedy in Chapters," this novel is unusual for Hardy's work, which is typically known for its tragic elements. Hardy intended it as a satire of popular romances for the literary world. It was serialized in the Cornhill Magazine and the New York Times from the summer of 1875 to the spring of 1876 and published in book form in 1876.
The story follows Ethelberta, a butler's daughter who uses her education as a governess to reinvent herself as a society poet in London to support her family secretly. She navigates the attentions of four suitors while trying to maintain her independence and social status.
Contemporary reviews were largely negative, and some critics considered it his "poorest book". Hardy felt it was misunderstood, suggesting it was ahead of its time.
Itinerary
10.00 Registration with tea/coffee
10.15 Chair's Welcome and Overview of Novel
10.45 The New Hardy Players (Performance)
11.30 Lecture: Alban O'Brien
12.30 Lunch Break
14.00 Keynote Speaker: Prof Angelique Richardson
15.00 Afternoon Break
15:20 Call for Papers: Mitchel Rowe, Student, Exeter University
16.00 Plenary Discussion
16.30 Harp Recital
17.00 Close
The event will include a walk around Wareham (Hardy's Anglebury) on Sunday, 12th April 2026
BOOK ONLINE
CLICK HERE to listen to The Hand of Ethelberta audio podcast created by Wessex Dramas Project
The Cornhill Magazine 1876
Illustration by George Du Maurier
Keynote Speaker: Angelique Richardson is Professor of English and a historian of science at the University of Exeter, where she leads the Hardy’s Global Correspondents Project. Her books and special editions include Love and Eugenics in the Late 19th Century; After Darwin: Animals, Emotions and the Mind; Women Who Did: Stories by Men and Women, 1890-1914; Hardy: Diverse Audiences; and, most recently, Objectivity.
She works on the history of racism as well as on Victorian opposition to imperialism and biologism - the misattribution to nature or biology or that which is social. She is on the editorial board of the Hardy Society journals, the Forum for World Literature Studies, Critical Quarterly, 19, and the Proceedings of Dorset Natural History & Archaeological Society. She also volunteers for Firefly International, an NGO which supports victims of war.
The New Hardy Players:
Approaching her 100th birthday, Norrie Woodhall, one of the original Hardy Players, was asked what she would like for her birthday and she replied she would like to see the Hardy Players reform. Thus the New Hardy Players were formed in 2005, to celebrate and bring to life the work of Thomas Hardy.
Over the last 20 years they have staged productions of Hardy’s most well-known works in many locations around Dorset, often outdoors, adding performances, poetry and music to many other events too.
Through their performances, the New Hardy Players have raised money for the Weldmar Hospicecare Trust, for Julia’s House, and for other local charities. We also helped with the Dorset County Museum’s appeal to bring unique Hardy manuscripts back home to Dorset.
In 2024, the players diversified, staging a very successful production of The 6 Men of Dorset, the Tolpuddle Play. Act 2, the trial of the Martyrs, performed in the same courtroom at the Shire Hall where they had been convicted 190 years before was particularly memorable.
Last year the NHP worked with local writer Victoria Jardine, to adapt Hardy’s A Few Crusted Characters, a collection of short stories told as the passengers in a carrier’s wagon make the journey from Casterbridge to Longpuddle.
This year the NHP are looking to adapt one of Hardy’s lesser known novels, The Hand of Ethelberta. They will be workshopping script-in-hand scenes at the THS Study Day as part of early development of a playscript, again working with Victoria Jardine. Can we find the Comedy in Chapters?
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