It also incorporates revisions that Hardy made inhis "study copy" of the novel and in his marked printer's copy and pageproofs for the Harper and Brothers "sixpenny edition" of 1901, wheneverthese revisions could be confidently judged to represent Hardy's finaldeliberate intent.<br /><br />The resulting text includes revisions by Hardy which have neverappeared before in a modern edition.<br /><br />The novel is fully annotated and is accompanied by Hardy's map ofWessex and a simplified map of the landscape of <em>Far from the MaddingCrowd</em>.<br /><br />"Textual Notes" include a list of emendations, examples of variantreadings from the manuscript to the Wessex edition, and a discussion ofthe choice of copy text.<br /><br />The textual history of the novel is traced in extracts from studies byRichard Little Purdy and Simon Gatrell.<br /><br />"Backgrounds" includes substantial extracts from Hardy's correspondencewith Leslie Stephen and is followed by a selection of contemporaryreviews.<br /><br />Twentieth-century "Criticism" is represented by Howard Babb, RoyMorrell, Alan Friedman, J. Hillis Miller, Michael Millgate, PenelopeVigar, Peter J. Casagrande, Ian Gregor, and Albert C. Schweik.