The Well-Beloved: A Sketch of a Temperament

The Well-Beloved: A Sketch of a Temperament is a novel by Thomas Hardy. It spans forty years, and follows Jocelyn Pierston, a celebrated sculptor who attempts to create in stone the image of his ideal woman, while he tries also to find her in the flesh.

It was serialized in 1892, and published as a book in 1897.

The main setting of the novel, the Isle of Slingers, is based on the Isle of Portland in Dorset, southern England.

Many of Hardy's novels were set in Dorset. The Well Beloved is one of...