Thomas Hardy: Selected Poems (Longman Annotated Texts) [Hardcover]

Thomas Hardy (Author), Tim Armstrong (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1993 | ISBN-10: 0582040515 | ISBN-13: 978-0582040519

This series provides the student with accessible and authoritative' annotated editions of key texts in English and American literature from medieval to modern times. This is the first comprehensively-annotated selection of Hardy's poems, providing the student with essential guidance, from a full introduction to headnotes to each poem and detailed on-the-page annotation. It will be the leading edition of a major poet. Key Features * Features a very full selection of some 180 poems covering all the key aspects of Hardy's poetic career. On-the-page annotation provides all the information the student needs to make the poems work for her/him. Includes Hardy's own reflections on his poetry, making this a self-sufficient text for teaching and study.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

In Thomas Hardy: Selected Poems Tim Armstrong brings together over 180 poems in the first comprehensively annotated selection of Hardy’s poetry. Unlike most previous selections, this edition preserves the shape of the poet’s career by presenting the poems in the order in which they appeared in the Collected Poems of 1930, rather than re-ordering them thematically.

Head notes to each poem give the reader information about its composition, publication, sources and metrical scheme; on-the-page notes list significant variants in Hardy’s manuscripts, point out literary and other allusions, and give explanatory glosses. An appendix contains a selection of relevant passages from Hardy’s notebooks, letters, and autobiography; and a bibliography suggests further reading.

Tim Armstrong’s critical Introduction discusses Hardy’s career, his poetics, his use of memory and allusion and examines his position in the context of Victorian debates on aesthetics and belief. The generous selection of poems includes many lesser-known poems as well as those which have received most critical commentary, and the important elegiac sequence ‘Poems of 1912-13’ is included in its entirety.

Tim Armstrong is Professor of Modern English and American Literature at Royal Holloway, University of London, and author of Haunted Hardy: Poetry, History, Memory (2000).

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

About the Author

Thomas Hardy was born on 2 June 1840. He wrote novels and poetry, much of which is set in the semi-imaginary county of Wessex. His novels include Far From the Madding Crowd (1874), The Return of the Native (1878), The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886), Tess of the D'Urbervilles(1891) and Jude the Obscure (1895). He published his first volume of poetry, Wessex Poems, in 1898 and continued to publish collections of poems until his death on 11 January 1928. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 496 pages
• Publisher: Longman Group United Kingdom (September 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0582040515
• ISBN-13: 978-0582040519
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,918,680 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Selected Poetry Available, December 19, 2009

By 

J. Cohen - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Selected Poems (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)

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.