SOURCE: Pether, Penelope. “Hardy and the Law.” Thomas Hardy Journal 7, no. 1 (February 1991): 28-41.

In the following essay, Pether examines Hardy's use of legal terminology in his stories.

In his “Preface” to Wessex Tales Hardy wrote, apropos of “The Withered Arm”:

Since writing this story some years ago I have been reminded by an aged friend who knew “Rhoda Brook” that, in relating her dream, my forgetfulness has weakened the facts out of which the tale grew. In reality it was while lying down on a hot afternoon that the incubus oppressed her and she flung it off, with the results upon the body of the original as described. To my mind the occurrence of such a vision in the daytime is more impressive than if it had happened in a midnight dream. Readers are therefore asked to correct the misrelation, which affords an instance of how our imperfect...