JULIAN WOLFREYS is Professor of Modern Literature and Culture at Loughborough University, UK. He has written and edited numerous books on nineteenth and twentieth-century literature and literary theory, and is the series editor of the Palgrave Macmillan Transitions series.

'Hardy and Wolfreys make a delicious match. What's finest about this book is Wolfreys' ability to prod us into play, opening up new possibilities for wandering inside a Hardy text.' - James R. Kincaid, University of Southern California, USA 'An invaluable introduction to the writing of Thomas Hardy.' - Lawrence Phillips, University of Northampton, UK '...immensely readable; the narrative is lively, convincing and written with a sense of humour.' - The Thomas Hardy Society Journal

• Abbreviations and a Note on the TextAknowedgementsIntroduction: Dwelling on HardyApprehension, Suspension, Abstention: Desperate Remedies (1871)Distortions and Transformations: Under the Greenwood Tree (1872) and A Pair of Blue Eyes (1873)Being and Dwelling: Far From the Madding Crowd (1874),The Return of the Native (1878) and Two on a Tower (1882)Uncommon Events: The Trumpet Major (1880), A Laodicean (1881) and The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886)Confessions of the Other:The Woodlanders (1887), Tess of the D'Urbervilles (1891) and Jude the Obscure (1895)AfterwordNotesBibliographyIndex.