A Laodicean

Thomas Hardy's novel A Laodicean is subtitled 'a story of to-day', and although the 'to-day' referred to is 1880-1, when the novel was serialised in Harper's New Monthly Magazine, there are several ways in which the novel continues to speak to us as a modern novel. Just as photography can be misused by Will Dare in the novel to give the false impression that George Somerset is in a scandalous state of drunkenness, so the modern tabloids are adept at taking photographs of politicians and celebrities which portray them in a certain (biased and/or false) light. In the novel, new communications networks are brought under close scrutiny.