The text of the novel is again based on Hardy’s final revision for the 1912 Wessex Edition. The Norton Critical Edition includes: expanded footnotes, further drawing out Hardy’s web of allusions and comprehensively indicating the material culture in which he embeds this narrative; a selection of Hardy’s poems—four of them new to this edition—that emphasises the biographical contexts from which parts of Jude the Obscure arose; nineteen critical responses, including twelve modern essays—eight of them new to the third edition. Simon Gatrell, Michael Hollington, Elaine Showalter, Victor Luftig and Mary Jacobus are among the new voices. Included are a chronology, and revised and expanded selected bibliography.
