The text is fully annotated and includes a separate table of contents for the novel to assist readers in locating specific episodes or passages.<br /><br />Hardy's hand-drawn map of Wessex and the manuscript title page for the first edition of his novel are also included.<br /><br />Hardy and the Novel includes seven poems by Hardy that provide greater insight into his ethos; selections from Michael Millgate's biography of Hardy that depict the relationship between episodes in <em>Tess of the D'Urbervilles</em> and events in the author's life; and excerpts from Grindle and Gatrell's introduction to the 1983 edition that discuss Hardy's revision process in both manuscripts and early printed editions of the novel.<br /><br />Criticism features three contemporary reviews of the novel not printed in the earlier Norton editions, including the first feminist review of <em>Tess of the D'Urbervilles</em>.<br /><br />Also new are "A Chat with Mr. Hardy," a hitherto unprinted post-publication interview with the author about his new novel, and five carefully selected critical interpretations.<br /><br />Essays by Elliot B. Gose, Jr., Peter R. Morton, and Gillian Beer address Hardy's debt to Charles Darwin, perhaps the single most important influence on Hardy's thought and imagination; Raymond Williams's essay presents a Marxist perspective; and Adrian Poole discusses the significance of Hardy's wisdom concerning "the trouble men's words have with women and the trouble women have with men's words."<br /><br />A Chronology, new to this edition, and a Selected Bibliography are included.