The Ruined Maid Resources

Wanna know absolutely everything about Thomas Hardy? Here's a great place to start: a short biography of our man Thomas Hardy.

Here's great overview of Victorian sexuality—sheesh, glad we didn't live in this era.

This is another great, but super-short, overview of Victorian sexuality.

If you're into bullet points, this is the place for you.

This overview of Victorian fashion etiquette is just to give you an idea about how structured Victorian society was.

Here's a website for Thomas Hardy's cottage in Dorset.

Read all about Hardy's most famous novel in this module.

If you have an hour to spare, you might try this.

This is actual footage of 'Melia and her friend's encounter. Okay, so it's not actual, but our guess is that would have looked just like this,

Come for the music, stay for the actors' interpretations.

Check out this serious interpretation.

Hmm, perhaps this was towards the end of his life.

Perhaps he is looking scornfully at Victorian society in this one.

This famous painting by George Frederick Watts has long been thought to have been about the suicide of a fallen woman.

Sometimes, encounters with ruined women weren't always as pleasant as that between 'Melia and her friend. Check out Dante Gabriel Rossetti's famous treatment of prostitution in the Victorian period to see what we mean.

Was Hardy ahead of his time? You bet!

See what Thomas Hardy had to say about women in his novels.

If you're feeling artistic, this may be for you.

Check out all the other poems that were published along with "The Ruined Maid."

Who needs Netflix when you can watch it on YouTube for free?