This Norton Critical Edition includes: The first one-volume version of the novel, from 1892, accompanied by the note to the first edition, preface to the fifth edition, and three appendices to the text. Detailed introductory materials and explanatory footnotes by Phillip Mallett and Jane Thomas. Three illustrations. A selection of contextual materials on Hardy’s Wessex and his nonfiction writings. Critical interpretations that include a wide variety of contemporary reviews and ten modern critical essays. A chronology of Hardy’s life and a selected bibliography.