Testimonies: A Novel
Before the epicAubrey-Maturin series, Patrick O'Brian wrote this sinister tale of love and death set in Wales, a dark and timeless story with echoes ofThomas HardyandMary Webb.  Joseph Pugh, sick of Oxford and of teaching, decides to take some time off to live in a wild and beautiful Welsh farm valley.  There he falls physically ill and is nursed back to health by Bronwen Vaughn, the wife of a neighboring farmer.  Slowly, unwillingly, Bronwen and Pugh fall in love, and while that word is never spoken between them, their story is passionate and tragic.