Description
Book SynopsisThe 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.
Table of ContentsList of illustrations; General editor's preface; Acknowledgements; Chronology; Abbreviations; Introduction; The Woodlanders; Editorial emendations; Textual notes; Record of variants – accidentals; End-of-line word division; Appendix A: the title-page verse; Appendix B: Hardy's prefaces; Appendix C: illustrations; Appendix D: description of substantive editions; Appendix E: compositorial stints for Macmillan's Magazine; Appendix F: 'pin-holes' in the manuscript of The Woodlanders; Appendix G: compositorial stints for the 1912 Wessex edition; Explanatory notes; Glossary of dialect terms; Map of Wessex.
