ROGER EBBATSON Professor of English Studies, University College, Worcester, UKJOHN HUGHES Lecturer, School of Humanities, University of Gloucestershire, UKCHARLES LOCK Professor of English Literature, University of Copenhagen, DenmarkROSEMARIE MORGAN Fellow, Yale University, President of the Thomas Hardy Association and Vice President of the Thomas Hardy SocietyRICHARD NEMESVARI Assistant Professor, Department of English, St Xavier University, CanadaRALPH PITE Lecturer, School of English, University of Liverpool, UKANGELIQUE RICHARDSON Lecturer, School of English, University of Exeter, UKMARY RIMMER Department of English, University of New Brunswick, CanadaLINDA M. SHIRES Professor of English, Syracuse University, USAJOHN POWELL WARD Formerly University of Swansea and poet/critic, UKJAMES WHITEHEAD Radley School, UK

• Chronology Notes on Contributors Introduction; P.Mallett Hardy and the Critics; C.Lock Hardy and His Readers; R.Nemesvari Hardy and Biography; R.Pite Editing Hardy; R.Morgan Hardy and Class; R.Ebbatson Hardy, Victorian Culture, and Provinciality; M.Rimmer Hardy and Science; A.Richardson Hardy and Sexuality; P.Mallett Hardy and Englishness; J.Whitehead Visual Inspiration in Hardy's Fiction; J.Hughes Hardy and Nineteenth-Century Poetry and Poetics; L.M.Shires Hardy's Aesthetic of Imperfection: Poetic and Social Connotations; J.P.Ward Bibliography Index

'Most of the essays in this collection are driven by their authors' knowledge of Hardy and adorned by their unusually (for academicians) approachable prose styles. The intention of the collection, and of most of the essays, is to encourage readers and other sorts of students to develop their own perspectives and entry-points into the fiction and (to a lesser extent) the poetry. This intention is carried through to a strong degree. Undergraduate and graduate students, and professional readers will find many points of departure in this book. Obviously, given the book's intention and its achievement, readers who are drawn to Hardy will be stimulated to various thoughts, and some of them will be controversial. In short, this collection is worth the money to anyone who admires Hardy.' - Professor Dale Kramer, University of Oregon (and Editor of the Cambridge Companion to Thomas Hardy )