A Laodicean; or, The Castle of the De Stancys. A Story of To-Day is a novel by
Thomas Hardy , first published in 1880–81 in Harper’s New Monthly Magazine. The plot exhibits devices uncommon in Hardy’s other fiction, such as falsified telegrams and faked photographs.
Thomas Hardy  (2 June 1840 – 11 January 1928) was an English novelist and poet. A Victorian realist in the tradition of George Eliot, he was influenced both in his novels and in his poetry by Romanticism, including the poetry of William Wordsworth. He was highly critical of much in Victorian society, especially on the declining status of rural people in Britain, such as those from his native South West England.