A Pair of Blue Eyes

A Pair of Blue Eyes (which was originally titled A Winning Tongue Had He) was probably outlined the summer of 1871, written the following summer, and published in three volumes by Tinsley Brothers in May 1873. It was serialized in Tinsley's Magazine from September 1872 through July 1873. This novel was Hardy's third published, and the first to carry his name.

A Pair of Blue Eyes carries more autobiographical associations than any other of Hardy's novels, having been written during his courtship of Emma Lavinia Gifford in North Cornwall. Miss Gifford is clearly paralleled in Elfride Swancourt, while Stephen Smith bears more than a passing resemblance to Hardy himself (much as he cared to deny it). The model for Henry Knight seems clearly to be Hardy's close friend and mentor, Horace Moule.

Some sites associated with A Pair of Blue Eyes:

	Portraits of Thomas and Emma Hardy
	St. Juliot's Rectory
	St. Juliot's Church ("East Endelstow")
	Commemorative Plaque for Thomas Hardy inside St. Juliot's Church
	Commemorative Plaque for Emma Lavinia Hardy inside St. Juliot's Church
	Drawing of bench-ends at St. Juliot's Church, by Thomas Hardy
	Lesnewth Church ("West Endelstow")
	Map of the Valency Valley
	Boscastle Harbour ("Castle Boterel")
	Coastline of North Cornwall
	Beeny Cliff ("The Cliff Without a Name")
	New Mills in the Valency Valley ("The Smith's Cottage")
	Lanhydrock House in the Fowey Valley ("Endelstow House")

Photographic Citations