Thomas Hardy was equally eminent as a novelist and a poet and thus holds a unique place in English Literature. More than seven decades after his death, Thomas Hardy is still surprisingly alive of uninterrupted critical attention is a test. The nineteen essays included in the volume—thirteen on Hardy’s fiction, five on his poetry, and one on general overview—cover a broad range of critical perspective on Hardy’s fiction and poetry, which include the comparative, the Freudian, the existentialist, the absurdist, the ‘psychospatial’, the feminist, the aesthetic-artistic, the historicist, the dialectical, the mythical, the symbolic, among others. The collection will be relevant and useful to both students and scholars of English literature as it brings into focus a wide spectrum of interesting sidelights on, and illuminating analyses of the various dimensions of Hardy’s works; some of the papers are refreshingly original and perceptive in their approach to and treatment of the respective subjects. As a ’great’ writer Hardy has remained problematic, demanding that his readers wrestle with him. The present volume claims to have joined that unbroken wrestle—more than a century old—with the words and meanings of Hardy’s works. Contributions from the eminent scholars in the field have enhanced the value of the collection.
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