An attractive book at a modest price ensures that everyone can share in this supreme literary inheritance. Two of Hardy's best works are included in this volume.

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.

Thomas Hardy in the Literary Lives series relates Hardy's life to his career as a writer, giving particular attention to his determination as a young man to make literature his career, his methodical preparation during the first thirty years of his life for that career, the writing of his fourteen published novels and the fame they brought him, and then, the culmination of his life as writer, his emergence in his remaining thirty years as one of the very greatest of English poets and the writer of The Dynasts.

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.

Thomas Hardy (1840–1928) was a major English poet and novelist; his works, often set in the fictional county of Wessex, are memorable for their realism and criticism of social constraints. This book, the first volume of a two volume selected collection of his works, includes ‘Under the Greenwood Tree’, ‘A Pair of Blue Eyes’, ‘Far From the Madding Crowd’, ‘The Return of the Native’, ‘The Trumpet-Major’ and ‘The Mayor of Casterbridge’.

One of the few authors to distinguish himself with equal merit in poetry and novel writing, Thomas Hardy remains one of English literature’s leading figures. For the first time in publishing history, this comprehensive eBook presents Hardy’s complete works, with scarce texts, numerous illustrations, informative introductions and the usual Delphi bonus material. (Version 8) Features: * illustrated with countless images relating to Hardy and his works * annotated with concise introductions to the novels and other texts * each novel has its own contents table - easily navigate between chapters! * information on the lost first novel ‘THE POOR MAN AND THE LADY', with a rare novella and poem tracing its content * ALL of the short stories with BOTH chronological and alphabetical contents tables * the compete plays – even including the rare “Tragedy of the Queen of Cornwall” available nowhere else as a digital book * ALL of the poems with their own separate chronological and alphabetical contents tables – find that special poem easily and quickly! * the poems are ALSO presented in their original collections, each with its own table * scholarly ordering of texts into chronological order and literary genres * special Hardy’s Wessex Map to accompany your reading of the novels * includes a special criticism section, with 6 different texts from other authors and critics, examining Hardy's literary work in detail * D. H. Lawrence's lengthy critical book A STUDY OF THOMAS HARDY * Hardy's wife's TWO biographies - explore the great writer's life in detail - available nowhere else * UPDATED with newly formatted texts, introductions, corrections and many more images Please visit www.delphiclassics.com to browse our range of exciting Complete Works titles The Novels THE POOR MAN AND THE LADY AN INDISCRETION IN THE LIFE OF AN HEIRESS DESPERATE REMEDIES UNDER THE GREENWOOD TREE A PAIR OF BLUE EYES FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD THE HAND OF ETHELBERTA THE RETURN OF THE NATIVE THE TRUMPET-MAJOR A LAODICEAN TWO ON A TOWER THE MAYOR OF CASTERBRIDGE THE WOODLANDERS TESS OF THE D’URBERVILLES THE WELL-BELOVED JUDE THE OBSCURE The Short Story Collections WESSEX TALES LIFE’S LITTLE IRONIES A GROUP OF NOBLE DAMES The Short Stories CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF HARDY’S SHORT STORIES ALPHABETICAL LIST OF HARDY’S SHORT STORIES The Verse Dramas THE DYNASTS TRAGEDY OF THE QUEEN OF CORNWALL The Poetry Collections WESSEX POEMS AND OTHER VERSES POEMS OF THE PAST AND THE PRESENT TIME’S LAUGHINGSTOCKS AND OTHER VERSES SATIRES OF CIRCUMSTANCE MOMENTS OF VISION AND MISCELLANEOUS VERSES LATE LYRICS AND EARLIER WITH MANY OTHER VERSES HUMAN SHOWS FAR PHANTASIES SONGS, AND TRIFLES WINTER WORDS IN VARIOUS MOODS AND METRES The Poems LIST OF POEMS IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER LIST OF POEMS IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER The Criticism A STUDY OF THOMAS HARDY by D.H. Lawrence THOMAS HARDY by Leon H. Vincent THE LYRICAL POETRY OF THOMAS HARDY by Edmund Gosse UNDER FRENCH ENCOURAGEMENT by David Christie Murray THOMAS HARDY by John Cowper Powys A NOTE ON THE GENIUS OF THOMAS HARDY by Arthur Symons The Biographies THE EARLY LIFE OF THOMAS HARDY, 1841–1891 by Florence Hardy THE LATER YEARS OF THOMAS HARDY, 1892–1928 by Florence Hardy Hardy’s Wessex Map Please visit www.delphiclassics.com to browse our range of exciting titles