ABSTRACT
when William Tinsley proposed to Hardy that he write a serial for Tinsleys' Magazine, the publisher knew exactly what he wanted. In Under the Greenwood Tree he had, so he thought, 'got hold of the best little prose idyll I had ever read. . . . But, strange to say, it would not sell. . . . It just lacks the touch of sentiment that lady novel-readers most admire.' If Hardy could give his next novel that 'touch of sentiment', things would go better. Tinsley's request came at a most opportune time, for Hardy had fallen in love. If A Pair of Blue Eyes is different from anything that he had as yet written—as it is—the reason lies in the fact that he had taken a trip into Cornwall and had there met the owner of the blue eyes. It was the most important trip he ever took in his whole life—one that left its mark on many a page in books he was yet to write.
