{"product_id":"2940169889291","title":"The Well-Beloved","description":"The Well-Beloved (1897) is A Sketch of a Temperament by Thomas Hardy. The novel tells the story of a sculptor's search for the ideal woman, through three generations of a Portland family.  From the Preface:  \"The peninsula, whereon most of the following scenes are laid, has been for centuries immemorial the home of a curious and well-nigh distinct people, cherishing strange beliefs and singular customs, now for the most part obsolescent. Fancies, like certain soft-wooded plants which cannot bear the silent inland frosts, but thrive by the sea in the roughest of weather, seem to grow up naturally here. Hence it is a spot apt to generate a type of personage like the character imperfectly sketched in these pages¿a native of natives¿whom some may choose to call a fantast, but whom others may see only as one that gave objective continuity and a name to a delicate dream which in a vaguer form is more or less common to all men, and is by no means new to Platonic philosophers.\"","brand":"Jonah Magar","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47123102335216,"sku":"2940169889291","price":14.57,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940169889291_p0.jpg?v=1763696453","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940169889291","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}