The first attempt to produce a Thomas Hardy Dictionary was made in 1911, before many of his finest poems had even been written, and since then there have been many attempts to produce reference works on his works and his life. None, however, can claim the authority and comprehensiveness ofthis Oxford Reader's Companion to Hardy. Under the editorial direction of Professor Norman Page, more than 40 of the world's most prominent experts on Hardy have been brought together to combine their insights and understandings of all aspects of Hardy studies. The result is a unique synthesis of knowledge, incorporating different nationalinterests and traditions of scholarship, investigating Hardy's life, work, and influences, and the historical context in which he wrote. As well as the assurance of sound scholarship and the convenience of the companion format, there are unexpected delights for the browser, such as entries on alcohol, humour, and pets. The Oxford Reader's Companion to Hardy is an indispensable bible for the Hardy scholar and the Hardy readeralike.
Scholarly, ambitious and scrupulous'. This is how the TLS recently described the Oxford Reader's Companion Series. In September 2000, the book which pioneered the series, The Oxford Reader's Companion to Dickens came out in paperback. Now the Oxford Reader's Companions to Hardy, Trollope, Conrad, and George Eliot will follow on from that success. In this format these books are designed specifically to appeal to students of literature. Each contains a more comprehensive and accessiblerange of information than any other reference work on these writers. Jozef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski had an astonishing life. 'Pole, Catholic, and nobleman' is how he described himself as at the age of 5. He was born in the Ukraine of Polish parents and spent his childhood in exile. It was only after fifteen years at sea that he began writing in English, his third language and the one whose genius had, as he put it, 'adopted' him. Owen Knowles and Gene M. Moore, together with their teamof distinguished Advisers and Contributors, have created a unique and authoritative reference work on all things Conradian. Over 400 entries cover Conrad's novels, stories, essays, and reviews; his friends, family, and associates; films and adaptations; ships and voyages; places associated with his life and works; his influences and sources; his reputation and critical approaches to his work; historical contexts to his life. Entries include: Conrad's life: health, Polish inheritance,the sea, ships and voyages People: Borys Conrad, Apollo and Ewa Korzeniowski, J. M. Barrie, Stephen Crane, Stefan Zeromski Places: America, Bangkok, Berdyczow, Congo, Cracow, Marseilles Novels: Almayer's Folly, Lord Jim, Nostromo Stories, essays, and reviews: 'An Anarchist', 'Typhoon', 'Autocracy and War', 'Legends', 'Tales of the Sea' Influences and Sources: James Brooke, Alighieri Dante, Charles Dickens, Napoleon Bonaparte, Emile Zola Characters: Almayer family, Mr Jones, Jim, Captain Mitchell, Nostromo, the Professor, Edith Travers Reputation: biographies, films, influences on other writers, portraits and other images, translations Historical context: First World War, Polish question, women's suffrage movement In addition to the A-Z entries the Companion offers extra material: a classified contents list with headwords grouped in thematic batches, Conrad's family tree, a useful chronology spanning Conrad's life, maps showing Conrad's travels, an index ofreferences to Conrad's works, and an alphabetical list of frequently cited texts.
Through original essays from a distinguished team of international scholars and Hardy specialists, A Companion to Thomas Hardy provides a unique, one-volume resource, which encompasses all aspects of Hardy's major novels, short stories, and poetry Informed by the latest in scholarly, critical, and theoretical debates from some of the world's leading Hardy scholars Reveals groundbreaking insights through examinations of Hardy’s major novels, short stories, poetry, and drama Explores Hardy's work in the context of the major intellectual and socio-cultural currents of his time and assesses his legacy for subsequent writers
'Scholarly, ambitious and scrupulous'. This is how the TLS recently described the Oxford Reader's Companion Series. In September 2000, the book which pioneered the series, The Oxford Reader's Companion to Dickens, came out in paperback. Now the Oxford Reader's Companions to Trollope, Hardy, Conrad, and George Eliot will follow on from its success. In this format each of these books, designed specifically to appeal to students of literature, contains a more comprehensive and accessiblerange of information than any other reference works on these writers. George Eliot was not only a great novelist but an important journalist and translator too, and her intellectual interests ranged far beyond literature and across many different cultures. The challenge faced by the compilers of this Companion was to do justice to the extraordinary range and depth of her intellectual life and creative work. The result is the most comprehensive guide to the life and work of George Eliot everwritten. There is much interest in George Eliot both in scholarly circles and amongst general readers of Victorian fiction. This Companion offers not only information and analysis of George Eliot's novels but also coverage of short stories, essays, poetry and translations, letters, and journals. Over 50 literary scholars from a variety of backgrounds from around the world contribute the latest thinking and expertise to this Companion. Entries include: Life of George Eliot: health, travels, pets owned by George Eliot, brothers and sisters of George Eliot Friends and associates: Lord Acton, Charles Bray, Florence Nightingale, Anthony Trollope Novels: Adam Bede, Daniel Deronda, Middlemarch: A Study of Provincial life, Romola Stories: 'Brother Jacob', 'The Lifted Veil' Essays and reviews: 'Address to Working Men, by Felix Holt', 'How I came to write Fiction', 'Notes on Form in Art' Themes: animals, characterization, class, crime, gender, irony, melodrama, society, the woman question Other writers: Aristotle, Jane Austen, E. T. A. Hoffman, John Keats, William Shakespeare, Mary Wollstonecraft, Emily Dickinson, Thomas Hardy, George Sand, Walt Whitman, Virginia Woolf Art and artists: illustrations, Rembrandt, J. M. W. Turner Music: Johann Sebastian Bach, Joseph Haydn Other contexts: feminism, education, politics, society, anti-Semitism, law, race, radicalism, technology, philosophy, utilitarianism, Christianity Publishing: John Chapman, TheCornhill Magazine, The Fortnightly Review, serialization Places: America, Berlin, Coventry, France, Ilfracombe, Munich, Oxford Reception and criticism: biographies of George Eliot, reputation In addition to A-Z entries, the book offers extra material: a useful classified contents list grouping headwords in thematic batches, a family tree, maps showing fictional settings and George Eliot's travels, a general bibliography, an alphabetical list of characters, and a time chart showing events in George Eliot's life in a historical and literary context.
'Scholarly, ambitious and scrupulous'. This is how the TLS recently described the Oxford Reader's Companion Series. In September 2000, the book which pioneered the series, The Oxford Reader's Companion to Dickens, came out in paperback. Now the Oxford Reader's Companions to Trollope, Hardy, Conrad, and George Eliot will follow on from its success. In this format each of these books, designed specifically to appeal to students of literature, contains a more comprehensive and accessiblerange of information than any other reference work on these writers. 'The busiest man of letters'. Few writers before or since have covered so much territory or written so many books. His output was formidable. The Oxford Reader's Companion to Trollope encompasses all the latest scholarship on this fascinating writer in one single volume. Thirty-six contributors have come together to bring a wealth of biographical, bibliographical, and historical information to illuminate the wider literary and cultural context of Trollope's life and work. Over 500 A-Z entries cover Trollope's literature; his work as biographer, journalist and travel writer; subsequent criticism and praise of his work; his family members, friends, and acquaintances; the social context of his life; his influences and the things he influenced; his interests and ideas. Entries include: Works: 'England and America', 'Clarrisa', 'Modern Literature', 'Cicero as a Man of Letters', 'The Higher Education ofWomen', 'On The Eastern Question', 'The Civil Service as a Profession', 'Letters from South Africa' Novels: Barchester Towers, Can You Forgive Her?, Orley Farm, The Small House at Allington, The Way We Live Now Biography and auto-biography: An Autobiography, Lord Palmerston, Thackeray Plays: Did He Steal It?, The Noble Jilt Short stories: 'Christmas at Thompson Hall', 'Mrs Brumby', 'Not If I Know It' Unpublished works: 'History of World Literature', Commonplace Book Private life: holidays abroad, food and drink, portraits and photographs, smoking Public life: public service of Anthony Trollope, Trollope and the Civil Service Trollope the writer: comedy in Trollope's work, heroes and heroines, language and style, working habits Issues and social context: charity and philanthropy, education, government, suffrage, agnosticism, atheism, art and artists, dancing, fashion, marriage and divorce, monarchy, old age In addition to A-Z entries, the book offers additional material: a useful thematic overview of entries, a chronology of Trollope's life, family trees, a comprehensive bibliography for further reading and maps of Trollope's travels.
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'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.
In The Ashgate Research Companion to Thomas Hardy, some of the most prominent Hardy specialists working today offer an overview of Hardy scholarship and suggest new directions in Hardy studies. The contributors cover virtually every area relevant to Hardy's fiction and poetry, including philosophy, palaeontology, biography, science, film, popular culture, beliefs, gender, music, masculinity, tragedy, topography, psychology, metaphysics, illustration, bibliographical studies and contemporary response. While several collections have surveyed the Hardy landscape, no previous volume has been composed especially for scholars and advanced graduate students. This companion is specially designed to aid original research on Hardy and serve as the critical basis for Hardy studies in the new millennium. Among the features are a comprehensive bibliography that includes not only works in English but, in acknowledgment of Hardy's explosion in popularity around the world, also works in languages other than English.
This study examines Hardy's prolonged struggle with his contemporary readers, whose bourgeois values he despised. Initially content to compromise, to provide them with congenial entertainment, Hardy resorted at first to strategies of subversion, smuggling material past his editors and finally to outspoken attack. Professor T. R. Wright attempts to balance historical research into the response of 'actual' readers and the material conditions of publishing with literary-critical analysis of the 'implied' reader inscribed in the novels themselves.
