The text of this edition is based on the Wessex Edition of 1912, whichwas revised and corrected by the author. It has been collated with theMellstock Edition of 1920, for which Hardy
submitted final corrections.
"Backgrounds and Contexts" provides new and invaluable source materialon Victorian Dorset and, in particular, Dorchester, Hardy's native homeand the town upon which Casterbridge is
based. Included are six ofHardy's nonfiction writings, notably excerpts from his essay "TheDorsetshire Laboure" (1883), in which he frankly comments on the socialchanges he has witnessed
in the county. Hardy's Wessex is furtherexamined in an essay by Michael Millgate, by maps of Casterbridge andWessex, and by a key to local place names. Christine Winfield
discussesthe novel's manuscript and its complicated history.
"Criticism" collects seventeen wide-ranging assessments of thenovel--six new to the Second Edition--from both contemporary and moderncritics, including Virginia Woolf, Albert J. Guerard, Julian
Moynahan,John Paterson, Michael Millgate, Irving Howe, J. Hillis Miller, IanGregor, Elaine Showalter, George Levine, William Greenslade, H. M.Daleski, and Suzanne Keen.
A Chronology and Selected Bibliography are also included.
