Amazon.com (ISBN 0393034836, Hardcover)

Before the epic Aubrey-Maturin series, Patrick O'Brian wrote this sinister tale of love and death set in Wales, a dark and timeless story with echoes of Thomas Hardy and Mary 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.