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.