A Group of Noble Dames

A Group of Noble Dames is an 1891 collection of short stories written by English author Thomas Hardy.

"The Duchess of Hamptonshire" and "The Honourable Laura" were written relatively early in Hardy's career, in 1878 and 1881 respectively.

The remaining six stories were written in early 1890 and published in bowdlerised form in a special Christmas number of The Graphic in December 1890.

Hardy collected all ten stories together for the first time in A Group of Noble Dames, which was published in England by Osgood, McIlvaine, & Co. and in America by Harper & Brothers in 1891.

[1][2] "Barbara of the House of Grebe" was adapted as a television drama by the BBC as part of an anthology series called Wessex Tales.