Paula Power, daughter of a wealthy railroad tycoon, inherited De Stancy Castle, an ancient castle in need of modernization. She instructs a young London architect, George Somerset, to do this work. Somerset falls in love with Paulo. But Paula, the Laodicean title, referring to a person with a warm or indecisive soul, is torn between the admiration of George and the admiration of Captain de Stancy, whose romanticism in the old world contrasts with Somerset’s visionary gaze....
Once upon a time there lived in the 19th century a charming young lady from a poor but proud family and a young ambitious gentleman in spirit, but not in origin. And now the boundaries of estates and welfare were ready to be erased under the pressure of the couple’s feelings and understanding of the girl’s parents that it’s not the age of her daughter to attract men and we need to work with what we have. However, the lady turned out to be capricious, fell into a hysteria an...
Hardy’s historical novel against the backdrop of the grandest Napoleonic wars tells about the love and sorrows of ordinary people who found themselves in unusual times. When the expected invasion brings several regiments to her small rural community, the young maid Anna Garland is looked after by three people in uniform: faithful trumpet major John Loveday, his sailor brother Bob, and the cowardly Festus Derriman of the cavalry of Yomanria.
Young beauty Eustace Way, passionate, self-willed, selfish and ambitious, eager to break out of the hateful rural outback into a “different life”, full of splendor, fun and pleasure. Meanwhile, after several years of service as a manager in a Paris jewelry salon, Clime Ibright returns to his Blooms End estate, who also wants to live a different life - to settle in his native land and open a school for the rural poor. Soon, Eustace and Klyme meet - and this meeting is destin...