Today in History
What went down and why you should care.
nov 23 Learn More Far from the Madding Crowd Published
Thomas Hardy's novel Far from the Madding Crowd was published on this day in 1874. The author is the subject of one of literature's more macabre legends. Here it goes: When Hardy died, the establishment wanted his ashes to be interred in Westminster Abbey's famed Poet's Corner. Meanwhile, the people of Dorset, Hardy's longtime home, wanted his remains buried there. A somewhat morbid compromise was made: his ashes went to the Abbey, but his heart went to Dorset. Here's where it gets extra weird. The rumor is that Hardy's housekeeper's cat ate the writer's heart before it could be put to the rest, so a pig's heart was buried in its place. And this, Shmooper, is why you should never store your deceased former employer's heart in a cookie tin.
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