Thomas Hardy's Wessex is one of the great literary evocations of place, populated with colourful and dramatic characters. As lovers of his novels and poetry know, this 'partly real, partly dream-country' was firmly rooted in the Dorset into which he had been born. Here, J.B. Bullen explores the relationship between reality and the dream, identifying the places and the settings for Hardy's writing, and showing how and why he shaped them to serve the needs of his characters and plots.