The Cambridge Companion to Thomas Hardy

Thomas Hardy’s fiction has had a remarkably strong appeal for general readers for decades, and his poetry has been acclaimed as among the most influential of the twentieth century. His work still creates passionate advocacy and opposition. The Cambridge Companion to Thomas Hardy is an essential introduction to this most enigmatic of writers. These commissioned essays from an international team of contributors comprises a general overview of all Hardy’ s work and specific demonstrations of Hardy’s ideas and literary skills. Individual essays explore Hardy’s biography, aesthetics, his famous attachment to Wessex, and the impact on his work of developments in science, religion and philosophy in the late nineteenth century. Hardy’s writing is also analysed against developments in contemporary critical theory and issues such as sexuality and gender. The volume also contains a detailed chronology of Hardy’s life and publications, and a guide to further reading.

• International team of contributors on an important writer • Companion format known, trusted and used by students • Covers all of Hardy’s career in a lucid and accessible fashion

Notes on contributors; Preface; A chronology of Hardy’s life and publications; List of abbreviations and texts; 1. Thomas Hardy: the biographical sources Michael Millgate; 2. Wessex Simon Gatrell; 3. Art and aesthetics Norman Page; 4. The influence of religion, science and philosophy on Hardy’s writings Robert Schweik; 5. Hardy and critical theory Peter Widdowson; 6. Thomas Hardy and matters of gender Kristin Brady; 7. Variants on genre: The Return of the Native, The Mayor of Casterbridge, The Hand of Ethelberta Jakob Lothe; 8. The patriarchy of class: Under the Greenwood Tree, Far from the Madding Crowd, The Woodlanders Penny Boumelha; 9. The radical aesthetic of Tess of the d\'Urbervilles Linda M. Shires; 10. Hardy and readers: Jude the Obscure Dale Kramer; 11. Hardy as a nineteenth-century poet Dennis Taylor; 12. The modernity of Thomas Hardy’s poetry John Paul Riquelme; Index.