Table of Contents

Preface List of Illustrations Introduction The Conception and Birth of Wessex Variations on the Original Theme The First Evolutionary Leap Tess of the d'Urbervilles Handling New Wessex Collected Editions 1 Collected Editions 2 The Poetry Cider, Mead and Ale Sounds The Languages of Wessex Wessex Rail Conclusion: Politics, Guides and Critics Index

Promotional Information

Simon Gatrell has previously studied the development of the texts of Hardy's fiction in a number of essays, in critical editions of "Tess of the d'Urbervilles", "Under the Greenwood Tree" and "The Return of the Native", and in a full-length account: "Hardy the Creator: A Textual Biography". His also wrote "Thomas Hardy and the Proper Study of Mankind".

About the Author

SIMON GATRELL is Professor of English at the University of Georgia, USA. He has previously studied the development of the texts of Hardy's fiction in a number of essays, in critical editions of Tess of the d'Urbervilles, Under the Greenwood Tree and The Return of the Native, and in a full-length account: Hardy the Creator: A Textual Biography. His most recent book was Thomas Hardy and the Proper Study of Mankind, and he is currently completing a biography of the Irish poet William Allingham.

Reviews

'...brings Gatrell's formidable knowledge of Hardy's textual history to bear on the region's imaginative evolution.' - Bharat Tandon, Times Literary Supplement