"Pierce has created a landmark contribution that will be essential reading for anyone who wishes to make sense of one of English literature's notoriously difficult works. He has grasped far more profoundly than any other reader the material history of the manuscript and the inescapable, determining consequences of that history for our reading of the text as a whole. Others have realized bits and pieces of this picture but no one comes anywhere close to Pierce in being able to stand back and make sense of the narrative shifts and inconsistencies created by constant addition to the manuscript. He has a remarkable command of the various complications and an enviable ability to present them lucidly. The scholarship is exemplary and the style engaging and clear." Nelson Hilton, Department of English, University of Georgia