In one of his books, A Pair of Blue Eyes, he had his hero literally hanging from a cliff face, giving rise to the term in Victorian literature. Incidentally, Hardy is the author with whom this term actually originated. Tess of the d'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy is the quintessential cliff hanger. Her conscience troubles her and she confesses the truth about herself in a letter which her beloved never receives. Determined to put her past behind her, she goes to work as a milkmaid in a faraway country farmhouse where she falls in love with a good and kind young man. She falls prey to the debauched son of the house and returns home to give birth in secret to an illegitimate baby who lives only for a few days. ‘Now, sir, begging your pardon we met last market-day on this road about this time, and I said ‘Good night,’ and you made reply ‘Good night, Sir John,’ as now.Her father compels her to visit the biggest mansion in the village to “claim kin” with the aristocratic d'Urberville family.
The pedestrian, after another pace or two, halted, and turned round. ‘Good night t’ee,’ said the man with the basket. Presently he was met by an elderly parson astride on a gray mare, who, as he rode, hummed a wandering tune. An empty egg-basket was slung upon his arm, the nap of his hat was ruffled, a patch being quite worn away at its brim where his thumb came in taking it off. He occasionally gave a smart nod, as if in confirmation of some opinion, though he was not thinking of anything in particular. The pair of legs that carried him were rickety, and there was a bias in his gait which inclined him somewhat to the left of a straight line.
On an evening in the latter part of May a middle-aged man was walking homeward from Shaston to the village of Marlott, in the adjoining Vale of Blakemore, or Blackmoor.
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