Thomas Hardy saw himself, first and foremost, as a poet and he composed poetry throughout his prolific and acclaimed novel-writing years. In 1896, dismayed by the criticism he received on publication
'Woman much missed, how you call to me, call to me...'After the death of his wife Emma, a grief-stricken Hardy wrote some of the best verse of his career. Moving and evocative, it ranks among the grea
′The movements of his mind seemed to tend to the thought that some power was working against him.′When Henchard, an out-of-work hay-trusser gets drunk and sells his wife at a country fair, his life wi
′Love is a possible strength in an actual weakness.′Beautiful, impulsive and spirited, Bathsheba Everdene′s fortunes are changed forever when she inherits her own farm and becomes a woman of independe
′My life looks as if it had been wasted for want of chances! When I see what you know, what you have read, and seen, and thought, I feel what a nothing I am!′Challenging the hypocrisy and social conve
Introduction and Notes by Jane Thomas, University of Hull. The Well-Beloved completes the cycle of Hardy's great novels, reiterating his favourite themes of man's eternal quest for perfection in both
Introduction and Notes by Dr Claire Seymour, University of Kent at Canterbury. The proverbial phrase 'life's little ironies' was coined by Hardy for his third volume of short stories. These tales and
With a new Introduction by Cedric Watts, Research Professor of English, University of Sussex. A Pair of Blue Eyes, though early in the sequence of Hardy's novels, is lively and gripping. Its dramatic
With an Introduction and Notes by Phillip Mallett, Senior Lecturer in English, University of St Andrews. Educated beyond her station, Grace Melbury returns to the woodland village of little Hintock an
Introduction and Notes by Michael Irwin, Professor of English Literature, University of Kent at Canterbury. Wessex Tales was the first collection of Hardy's short stories, and they reflect the experie
Introduction and Notes by Norman Vance, Professor of English, University of Sussex.Jude Fawley is a rural stone mason with intellectual aspirations. Frustrated by poverty and the indifference of the a
With an Introduction and Notes by Charles P.C. Pettit. Thomas Hardy's only historical novel, The Trumpet Major is set in Wessex during the Napoleonic Wars.Hardy skilfully immerses us in the life of th
With an Introduction and Notes by Claire Seymour, University of Kent at Canterbury. The Return of the Native is widely recognised as the most representative of Hardy's Wessex novels. He evokes the dis
With an Introduction, Bibliography and Glossary by Michael Irwin, Professor of English Literature University of Kent at Canterbury. Thomas Hardy started composing poetry in the heyday of Tennyson and
Introduction and Notes by Michael Irwin, Professor of English Literature, University of Kent at Canterbury. Set in Hardy's Wessex, Tess is a moving novel of hypocrisy and double standards. Its challen
