Jude the Obscure (Third Edition) (Norton Critical Editions)

Book excerpt: This Third Norton Critical Edition of Hardy’s final novel has been revised to reflect the breadth of responses it has received over the last fifteen years. The text of the novel is again based on Hardy’s final revision for the 1912 Wessex Edition. The Norton Critical Edition also includes: · Expanded footnotes by Ralph Pite, further drawing out Hardy’s web of allusions and comprehensively indicating the material culture in which he embeds this narrative. · A selection of Hardy’s poems—four of them new to the Third Edition—that emphasizes the biographical contexts from which parts of Jude the Obscure arose. · Eighteen critical responses, including eleven modern essays—eight of them new to the Third Edition. Simon Gatrell, Michael Hollington, Elaine Showalter, Victor Luftig, and Mary Jacobus are among the new voices. · A Chronology and revised and expanded Selected Bibliography.