The Dewy Morn | Richard Jefferies

Introduction by Rebecca Welshman (softback)

The Dewy Morn was published in 1884. It is a love story set in the foothills of the Marlborough Downs in north Wiltshire, where Jefferies was born and raised.

The plot centres on the beautiful Felise Goring, who hankers after farmer and landowner Martial Barnard. But Barnard cannot permit himself to return her love. The villain of the story is Robert Godwin, the Squire’s steward. Godwin is heartless in the way he treats agricultural workers who have served the Squire well for generations. The steward also harbours a secret about Felise that sends him insane. Jefferies writes about the condition of the rural poor with authority and feeling, whilst his passion for nature is ever present in his descriptive passages.