Customer Reviews

Selected Poems (Penguin Classics)

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Penguin Classics "Selected Poems" of Thomas Hardy is undoubtedly the best available book of Hardy's verse. Of course, there is the gargantuan Collected Poems that's available from Palgrave Press if you're a completist. But if you're not interested in owning every poem that Hardy ever wrote AND if you want a book that's actually portable, this is the one you want to get.

Now, for some odd reason, despite Penguin's "Selected Poems" being the best, short collection of Hardy's verse available, I've never seen the book in a book store. Instead, there's always some inferior publication on their shelves--like the Hardy selection available from the Everyman's Library Pocket Poets series, for instance.

But don't let that fool you. This Penguin selection is vastly superior to those few alternatives. All you have to do is to compare the Tables of Contents to see for yourself, and I think you will agree that Penguin's editor, Harry Thomas, has done a great job of whittling Hardy's substantial verse output down to the essentials.

Also, it's important to note that Penguin has actually published TWO different versions of their "Thomas Hardy: Selected Poems": one was edited by Harry Thomas and the other was edited by Robert Mezey. This can be a bit confusing, because although both versions are very good and have a similar cover style, their respective selections are significantly different (for instance, Thomas' edition has the poem "A Broken Appointment" and Mezey's does not). So be sure to keep this in mind before making your purchase.