Tess of the d'Urbervilles : Thomas Hardy

Thomas Hardy has long been critically constructed as 'poet of Wessex' and 'novelist of Character and Environment'.

This volume offers to deconstruct such a mythic 'Hardy' in selecting contemporary critical essays which re-present Tess from very different critical perspectives.

Feminist, cultural-materialist and poststructuralist approaches in particular explore gender, class and language by way of the novel's riven textuality.

In the process, the Introduction claims, Tess emerges as a potent postmodern text.