Blackmail, murder and romance are among the ingredients of Hardy&#39;s first published novel, &quot;Desperate Remedies&quot;, and in it he draws blithely on the &#39;sensation novel&#39; perfected by Wilkie Collins. Several perceptive critics praised the author as a novelist with a future when &quot;Desperate Remedies&quot; appeared anonymously in 1871. In its depiction of country life and insight into psychology and sexuality it already bears the unmistakable imprint of Hardy&#39;s genius.<br /><br />Cytherea has taken a position as lady&#39;s maid to the eccentric arch-intriguer Miss Aldclyffe. On discovering that the man she loves, Edward Springrove, is already engaged to his cousin, Cytherea comes under the influence of Miss Aldclyffe&#39;s fascinating, manipulative steward Manston.