Cambridge Companion to Thomas Hardy (Cambridge Companions to Literature)
Cambridge University Press, 1/12/2008
EAN 9780521566926, ISBN10: 0521566924
Paperback, 260 pages, 23 x 15.6 x 1.8 cm
Language: English
Thomas Hardy's fiction has had a remarkably strong appeal for general readers for decades, and his poetry has been acclaimed as among the most influential of the twentieth century. His work still creates passionate advocacy and opposition. The Cambridge Companion to Thomas Hardy is an essential introduction to this most enigmatic of writers. These commissioned essays from an international team of contributors comprises a general overview of all Hardy' s work and specific demonstrations of Hardy's ideas and literary skills. Individual essays explore Hardy's biography, aesthetics, his famous attachment to Wessex, and the impact on his work of developments in science, religion and philosophy in the late nineteenth century. Hardy's writing is also analysed against developments in contemporary critical theory and issues such as sexuality and gender. The volume also contains a detailed chronology of Hardy's life and publications, and a guide to further reading.
Notes on contributors
Preface
A chronology of Hardy's life and publications
List of abbreviations and texts
1. Thomas Hardy
the biographical sources Michael Millgate
2. Wessex Simon Gatrell
3. Art and aesthetics Norman Page
4. The influence of religion, science and philosophy on Hardy's writings Robert Schweik
5. Hardy and critical theory Peter Widdowson
6. Thomas Hardy and matters of gender Kristin Brady
7. Variants on genre
The Return of the Native, The Mayor of Casterbridge, The Hand of Ethelberta Jakob Lothe
8. The patriarchy of class
Under the Greenwood Tree, Far from the Madding Crowd, The Woodlanders Penny Boumelha
9. The radical aesthetic of Tess of the d'Urbervilles Linda M. Shires
10. Hardy and readers
Jude the Obscure Dale Kramer
11. Hardy as a nineteenth-century poet Dennis Taylor
12. The modernity of Thomas Hardy's poetry John Paul Riquelme
Index.