Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) was an English novelist and poet whose work is best known for combining the traditions of Romanticism with a realistic portayal of a declining rural society in Victorian England.

"The Fiddler of the Reels" tells the story of a love triangle. The enigmatic, brilliant and rakish violin player, Wat Ollamore, who arrives in the small South Wessex village of Mellstock, exercises a diabolical fascination with the young, impressionable Car'line Aspent. Car'line's beau, Ned Hipcroft, is unable to compete with Ollamore's sinister hold on her...but when four years later Car'line suddenly writes to Ned out of the blue and offers to marry him, things turn out to be very different than he could have ever imagined.