Thomas Hardy and the Proper Study of Mankind - Victorian Literature and Culture Series

Publisher Marketing: Simon Gatrell offers a fresh and stimulating exploration of Hardy's account in fiction of the individual man or woman's relationship with various aspects of the encompassing world- with other men and women, with the aggregation known as society, with the natural and artificial environment, and with the supernatural. He focuses on the importance of community in Hardy's fiction, especially on the ability of rural villages and towns to withstand the stresses of industrialized agriculture and the national standardization of education and culture.

Contributor Bio:  Gatrell, Simon Simon Gatrell is Professor of English at the University of Georgia. Nancy Barrineau is Associate Professor of English at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke. Margaret R. Higonnet is Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of Connecticut.