Story summary
Samenvatting van Een Laodiceër
- 8 min. leestijd
- 10 parts
- Binnenkort te beluisteren
An architect sketching old churches watches a rich young woman refuse baptism, then finds her castle.
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Een Laodiceër in het kort
Samenvatting: 8 min leestijd
- Leestijd
- Ongeveer 9 h 5 min7 h 10 min fast, 10 h 45 min slow
- Lengte
- 129.200 woorden
- Bibliotheekniveau
- Gemiddeld longer sentences, everyday words
- Voor het eerst verschenen
- 1881by Thomas Hardy
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). Hoelang het duurt om de klassiekers te lezen · Bijgewerkt
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Een Laodiceër in short
A Laodicean follows a young architect, an heiress and a castle across a changing England. Somerset sees Paula Power refuse baptism, is hired to restore her castle, and falls in love. She answers with teasing and caution, and her reserve leaves room for rivals: a jealous architect, a gifted schemer named Dare, and Captain De Stancy, whose family once owned the castle.
What Een Laodiceër is about
What would you do if, on a quiet August evening, you peered through a chapel window and watched a young woman in a white robe refuse to step into a tank of water? That is how George Somerset, a young architect wandering the west of England with a measuring tape, first sees Paula Power. He cannot stop thinking about her.
A Laodicean was written by Thomas Hardy in the early 1880s, partly while he lay ill. It sets a railway fortune against a medieval castle. You get a love story full of delays and misreadings, a scheming young man with a revolver, and a sharp look at England as old ranks give way to new money.
Voor wie is het?. You will enjoy this if you like love stories with real obstacles, old castles, schemers and secrets, or novels about old England meeting new fortunes.
The story in 10 parts
Key idea 1 · free to read
A refused baptism starts the whole story
The novel opens on an August evening. George Somerset, son of a well-known painter, is measuring a carved church doorway in a western village. He has spent years drifting between styles and careers, and this tour of old Gothic buildings is meant to settle his path.
As dusk comes on, he follows an old hymn tune to a new red-brick Baptist chapel, built at the expense of John Power. Somerset climbs up beside the stovepipe and looks through a window. A tall young woman in a long white robe walks to the edge of the tank and stops. The minister reminds her of her dead father's wish, but she says she cannot do it.
She goes into the vestry, and the minister preaches on the verse about the lukewarm church. Every word is aimed at the vestry door. Somerset follows a humming telegraph wire until it leads him to a half-ruined castle. A single refusal in a chapel has opened both the plot and the title.
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Stancy Castle holds the old and the new
The next morning Somerset returns to the castle, hoping to study its vaults and carvings.
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A ruined family lives in a modern villa
Miss De Stancy invites Somerset to lunch with her father at Myrtle Villa, a neat new house on the edge of Markton.
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Somerset wins a client and makes a rival
Somerset meets Paula face to face in a rustic summerhouse by the river.
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Love grows slowly under Paula's guard
Over the next weeks Somerset and Paula spend time together over plans and measurements.
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A schemer and a rival join forces
While guests stroll below during the garden party, a young man watches from the studio windowsill smoking a cigarette.
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The captain wakes to love and ambition
Captain De Stancy of the Royal Horse Artillery is a handsome, melancholy man of about thirty-eight, who has lived as if nothing could move him.
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Old blood and new money face each other
Hardy builds the book on a contrast between two kinds of nobility.
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A lukewarm heart keeps lovers apart
The word Laodicean describes a person who will not commit, and Paula seems to fit it.
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A narrator who sees both worlds at once
Hardy tells the story with a voice that stands a little above events.
Read all 10 key ideas now
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Characters, plot and themes
Main characters
- George Somerset A young architect and the son of a painter, torn between styles and careers, who falls in love with Paula and wants her trust.
- Paula Power A rich, independent young heiress who owns Stancy Castle and keeps her heart guarded while she decides who she is.
- Charlotte De Stancy Paula's gentle, loyal friend and companion, who belongs to the old family and quietly cares for Somerset.
- Captain De Stancy A melancholy soldier of the old family who wakes to love for Paula and longs to see the castle again.
- William Dare A young man of no clear age who plays the amateur photographer and schemes to push his own plans.
- James Havill A Markton architect, proud and resentful, who competes with Somerset for the castle commission.
- Abner Power Paula's scarred uncle, who returns from abroad after many years and has firm plans for her marriage.
- Mr. Woodwell The stern, kindly Baptist minister who loves Paula like a daughter and fears for her faith.
How it ends (spoiler)
The castle catches fire during the night of Paula and Somerset's return from abroad as husband and wife. The blaze destroys the old family treasures that were piled in the Long Gallery, and the couple watch it from a distance. Charlotte has chosen a secluded life and writes a loving farewell, while the captain leaves the district. Paula and Somerset are left together, with the old home gone and a new life ahead.
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Vragen over Een Laodiceër
What is A Laodicean about?
It follows George Somerset, a young architect hired by the rich Paula Power to restore her medieval castle. As they fall in love, a rival architect, a soldier of the old family and a schemer try to shape her choice.
What does the title A Laodicean mean?
A Laodicean is a person who is lukewarm in faith or feeling. The word comes from a sermon preached at Paula in the book, taken from the letter to the church at Laodicea in Revelation.
Who is Paula Power?
She is the young heiress of a railway contractor, living in Stancy Castle. She has a Baptist upbringing, an interest in science and a growing taste for the old De Stancy past, and she guards her feelings carefully.
When was A Laodicean written?
Hardy wrote it in the early 1880s for a magazine, and in his preface he says illness forced him to dictate part of it. It is a work of fiction, though it draws on real changes in Victorian country life.
Is A Laodicean worth reading?
It suits readers who enjoy a love story with plot turns, an old castle, a clever schemer and a look at changing England. Its short chapters, lively scenes and clear characters make it approachable.
Verwijs naar deze uitgave
Hardy, Thomas. A Laodicean. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/a-laodicean.
Hardy, T. (2026). A Laodicean. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/a-laodicean (Original work published 1881)
Hardy, Thomas. A Laodicean. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/a-laodicean.
@book{hardy2026laodicean,
author = {Hardy, Thomas},
title = {A Laodicean},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/a-laodicean},
note = {First published 1881}
}
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