When Barbara elopes with her penniless lover, it sets in motion a series of events culminating in tragedy.

Thomas Hardy, today on The Classic Tales Podcast.

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This episode of The Classic Tales Podcast was originally released on June 22nd, 2007,

along with The Cascua Montiado by Edgar Allan Poe and The Speckled Band by Arthur Conan Doyle.

I ran across this story in a collection of short stories called The Oxford Guide of Gothic Tales,

edited by Chris Baldick, which I'd highly recommend.

Of course you'll run into most of the stories if you listen to the vintage episodes of The Podcast.

Barbara of the House of Grebe was originally published in the periodical The Graphic in 1890,

and later collected with nine other stories in a group of noble dams,

and published in book form in 1891.

It's a pretty gothic story. You've got the dark atmosphere, romance, tragedy, and a dark villain.

So buckle up. It's about to get real.

And now Barbara of the House of Grebe, part one of two by Thomas Hardy.

It was apparently an idea rather than a passion that inspired Lord Upland Towers resolved to win her.

Nobody ever knew when he formed it, or whence he got his assurance of success in the face of her manifestus like of him.

Possibly not until that first important act of her life, which I shall presently mention.

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