The Cambridge Edition of the Novels and Stories of Thomas Hardy – serie

Hardy's first published novel, Desperate Remedies (1871), a piece of sensation fiction that encompasses illegitimacy, murder, blackmail, impersonation, and bigamy, was originally published anonymously. Written while, in Hardy's own words, he was 'feeling his way to a method', it nonetheless contains early examples of the kinds of extreme situations and emotions that continued to play a significant role in his later plots. As part of The Cambridge Edition of the Novels and Stories of Thomas Hardy, this edition of the novel provides an authoritative text; full scholarly apparatus that allows the reader to trace Hardy's creative process; an introductory essay discussing the work's composition, publication, and critical reception; and comprehensive explanatory notes.

This is the first complete scholarly edition of one of Hardy's greatest novels. The Return of the Native engages ambitiously with contemporary ideas and problems of existence, and would go on to become one of the major 'Wessex novels'. When composed in 1878, however, Hardy's Wessex did not yet exist, and this edition, which is based on meticulous analysis of Hardy's holograph manuscript and every significant print edition of the novel to appear in his lifetime, situates The Return of the Native within the historical context of its first publication, encouraging readers to trace its evolution over the following four decades. Tim Dolin provides a wealth of supporting materials, including an original, authoritative text, comprehensive annotation, commentary and glossary, and illustrated appendices of both Arthur Hopkins's illustrations and the topography of Egdon Heath, thus creating an invaluable tool for students and scholars of Hardy and nineteenth-century literature alike.

The Woodlanders (1887) was Thomas Hardy's elventh published novel and the one he claimed to like 'as a story, the best of all'. It is a story of wide appeal, having much to say on themes such as marriage and social class, and with a background revealing its author's profound knowledge and appreciation of many matters, particularly nature and country life. As part of The Cambridge Edition of the Novels and Stories of Thomas Hardy, this edition of the novel provides an authoritative and accurate text which aims to reflect Hardy's original artistic intention and represent the novel as it would have been read by his Victorian readers. The novel is supported by a comprehensive introduction, chronology and accompanying textual apparatus which allows the modern reader to trace the novel's evolution from composition to first publication and through several stages of revision in succeeding editions in the quarter of a century following its first publication.

Though considered a minor novel, A Laodicean is crucial in Thomas Hardy's career, literary art, and exploration of nineteenth-century religious issues. This is the first authoritative variorum edition of the novel, featuring a full account of its history, references, sources, and literary-religious importance. It explores Hardy's interpretation of English religious culture and his engagement with the debate between Anglicanism, Catholicism, and secularism, woven not only through its treatment of Anglican-Catholic histories of place, but also through the love lives of the main characters, connected as these are with their gradual accommodation of innate secularism alongside their growing religious interest. Alongside extensive explanatory notes, an introductory essay provides new and enlightening insights into the novel's fascinating contexts and into the process of its composition, its reception, its various editions, and the novel's rich dialects and geographies.

Hardy's second published novel, Under the Greenwood Tree (1872), the first of his great series of Wessex novels, was originally published anonymously. As part of the Cambridge Edition of the Novels and Stories of Thomas Hardy, this edition of the novel provides readers with an authoritative and accurate text of the novel; moreover it gives access to every revision that Hardy made, and to notations of all the errors introduced by printers' compositors. The annotated text is surrounded by an introduction that gives a very full account of the genesis, the writing and the publishing history of the novel. A range of appendices and comprehensive explanatory notes explore significant aspects of the composition, production and marketing of the novel, touched on in the introduction, to provide a full understanding of the nature and life of this classic work.

Hardy's first collection of short stories, Wessex Tales contains some of his most famous narratives. 'The Three Strangers' is often described as the quintessential example of his short fiction, while 'The Withered Arm,' with its suggestion of supernatural influences and its shocking conclusion, has thrilled readers for over a century. Tales such as 'Fellow-Townsmen' and 'Intruders at the Knap' showcase Hardy's typically ironic approach to the relationship between the sexes, and 'The Distracted Preacher' shows his undervalued comic touch. The re-introduction of 'An Imaginative Woman' into the collection, which Hardy at one point inserted and then subsequently removed, restores the volume to his original intention. This edition provides an authoritative text and full scholarly apparatus, allowing the reader to trace Hardy's creative process for each of the stories. It also includes an introductory essay discussing the work's composition, publication and critical reception, and comprehensive explanatory notes.

Life's Little Ironies (a phrase coined by Hardy) was Thomas Hardy's third collection of short stories. The volume's eight stories and one sequence of shorter tales (presented in a Canterbury Tales-type framework) had all appeared first in magazines before being gathered together in 1894. Not only do they reflect the strengths and themes of his great novels - they are also themselves powerful works, encompassing tragedy and humour. Part of the Cambridge Edition of the Novels and Short Stories of Thomas Hardy, this volume presents an authoritative text which aims to reflect Hardy's original artistic intentions. A full scholarly apparatus includes every authorial revision, from manuscript (where extant) onwards, enabling readers to trace Hardy's creative process. An introductory essay gives details of the stories' composition, publishing history and critical reception; there are comprehensive explanatory notes and a glossary, and the illustrations that accompanied the stories' magazine publication also provide valuable context.