Thomas Hardy by Ralph Pite

Thomas Hardy by Ralph Pite

This volume in the 21st Century Oxford Authors series offers students an authoritative, comprehensive selection of the work of Thomas Hardy - the first for nearly thirty years. The edition presents the poetry in a new way by giving the texts of Hardy's original volumes, as they first appeared, instead of the revised text he later produced for his Collected Poems. It reveals the range and variety of his output - qualities he later tended to disguise. His most famous sequence, the 'Poems of 1912-13' appears in a radically different form.Selections from his epic drama, The Dynasts, are given within the chronological sequence of his poetry, illustrating the power of this neglected work. Notebook and journal entries, where Hardy puts forward his understanding of poetry and the role of the poet, are also included. Uniquely generous in the number of poems it contains, this edition also provides extensive annotation, locating Hardy's work in its cultural context and reading it in the light of the critical reception. The notes direct attention towards Hardy's regional heritage, and they show his response to the issues and debates of his day - to discussions surrounding war, patriotism, the treatment of animals, marriage, and religion, among others. The annotation locates, in addition, how Hardy's work has continued to speak to present-day readers, by addressing present-day concerns--in particular, gender, including the gender(s) of the poetic voice, the global and (or versus) the local, and, thirdly, humanity's place within the natural world.The edition also includes an Introduction to the life and works of Hardy, and a Chronology.

Ralph Pite is Professor of English at the University of Bristol. He has published extensively on Thomas Hardy, including the biography, Thomas Hardy: The Guarded Life (2007) and Hardy's Geography: Wessex and the Regional Novel (2002). He has also published on classical reception and on ecocriticism, particularly in connection with the Romantic period; he is currently completing a study of the poetry of water. He developed the smartphone app, Romantic Bristol: Writing the City, first launched in 2013, and is a published poet.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780198723370
ISBN 10	0198723377
Title	Thomas Hardy
Author	Ralph Pite
Series	21st-Century Oxford Authors
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Hardback
Publisher	Oxford University Press
Year published	2021-10-05
Number of pages	602
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.