The Well–Beloved, by Thomas Hardy

Preface.

Part First — A Young Man Of Twenty.

1. A Supposititious Presentment of her
2. The Incarnation is Assumed to be True
3. The Appointment
4. A Lonely Pedestrian
5. A Charge
6. On the Brink
7. Her Earlier Incarnations
8. ‘Too like the Lightning’
9. Familiar Phenomena in the Distance

Part second — a young man of Forty

1. The old Phantom becomes Distinct
2. She Draws close and Satisfies
3. She becomes an Inaccessible Ghost
4. She Threatens to Resume Corporeal Substance
5. The Resumption Takes place
6. The Past Shines in the present
7. The new becomes Established
8. His own Soul Confronts him
9. Juxtapositions
10. She Fails to Vanish still
11. The Image Persists
12. A Grille Descends between
13. She is Enshrouded from Sight

Part Third — a young man of Sixty

1. She Returns for the new Season
2. Misgivings on the Re-embodiment
3. The Renewed Image Burns itself in
4. A Dash for the last Incarnation
5. On the Verge of Possession
6. The Well-beloved Is—where?
7. An old Tabernacle in a new Aspect
8. ‘Alas for this Grey Shadow, once a man!’