It also incorporates revisions that Hardy made inhis study copy of the
novel and in his marked printer's copy and pageproofs for the Harper and
Brothers sixpenny edition of 1901, wheneverthese revisions could be
confidently judged to represent Hardy's finaldeliberate intent. The
resulting text includes revisions by Hardy which have neverappeared before
in a modern edition. The novel is fully annotated and is accompanied by
Hardy's map ofWessex and a simplified map of the landscape of Far from the
MaddingCrowd. Textual Notes include a list of emendations, examples of
variantreadings from the manuscript to the Wessex edition, and a discussion
ofthe choice of copy text. The textual history of the novel is traced in
extracts from studies byRichard Little Purdy and Simon Gatrell.
Backgrounds includes substantial extracts from Hardy's correspondencewith
Leslie Stephen and is followed by a selection of contemporaryreviews.
Twentieth-century Criticism is represented by Howard Babb, RoyMorrell,
Alan Friedman, J. Hillis Miller, Michael Millgate, PenelopeVigar, Peter J.
Casagrande, Ian Gregor, and Albert C. Schweik.