Staff Pick
This dark novel begins with a man who, in a drunken rage, sells his wife and daughter at a fair. Full of remorse upon realizing what he has done, he vows to redeem his life — and does so. Yet his secret weighs heavily on him. Hardy is his usual brooding, heartrending self here, but to a beautiful, profound effect. Recommended By Dianah H., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
It has been collated with the Mellstock Edition of 1920, for which Hardy submitted final corrections. "Backgrounds and Contexts" provides new and invaluable source material on Victorian Dorset and, in particular, Dorchester, Hardy's native home and the town upon which is based.
Synopsis
"Backgrounds and Contexts" provides new and invaluable source material on Victorian Dorset and, in particular, Dorchester, Hardy s native home and the town upon whichCasterbridge is based. Included are six of Hardy s nonfiction writings, notably excerpts from his essay "The Dorsetshire Laboure" (1883), in which he frankly comments on the social changes he has witnessed in the county. Hardy s Wessex is further examined in an essay by Michael Millgate, by maps of Casterbridge and Wessex, and by a key to local place names. Christine Winfield discusses the novel s manuscript and its complicated history. "Criticism" collects seventeen wide-ranging assessments of the novel--six new to the Second Edition--from both contemporary and modern critics, including Virginia Woolf, Albert J. Guerard, Julian Moynahan, John Paterson, Michael Millgate, Irving Howe, J. Hillis Miller, Ian Gregor, Elaine Showalter, George Levine, William Greenslade, H. M. Daleski, and Suzanne Keen A Chronology and Selected Bibliography are also included. "
Synopsis
The text of this edition is based on the Wessex Edition of 1912, which was revised and corrected by the author.
About the Author
Thomas Hardy (1840-1928), enduring author of the twentieth century, wrote the classics Jude the Obscure, Tess of the d'Urbervilles, Far from the Madding Crowd, The Return of the Native, The Mayor of Casterbridge, and many other works.Phillip Mallett is Senior Lecturer in English at the University of St. Andrews. He is the author of chapters and articles on a number of Victorian and earlier writers, and editor of several texts and collections of essays, including Kipling Considered, Rudyard Kipling: Limits and Renewals, A Spacious Vision: Essays on Thomas Hardy (with Ronald Draper), Satire, The Achievement of Thomas Hardy, and the Norton Critical Edition of The Mayor of Casterbridge, Second Edition.