Desperate Remedies : Les Prairies Numeriques : 9782382743720 : 2382743727 : 28 Oct 2020 : DESPERATE REMEDIES IS THE SECOND NOVEL BY THOMAS HARDY, ALBEIT THE FIRST TO BE PUBLISHED. IT WAS RELEASED ANONYMOUSLY BY TINSLEY BROTHERS IN 1871. Plot: Cytherea has taken a position as lady'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's fascinating, manipulative steward Manston.Analysis: In Desperate Remedies a young woman, Cytherea Graye, is forced by poverty to accept a post as lady's maid to the eccentric Miss Aldclyffe, the woman whom her father had loved but had been unable to marry. Cytherea loves a young architect, Edward Springrove, but Miss Adclyffe's machinations, the discovery that Edward is already engaged to a woman whom he does not love, and the urgent need to support a sick brother drive Cytherea to accept the hand of Aene