Thomas Hardy: the biographical sources / Michael Millgate -- Wessex / Simon Gatrell -- Art and aesthetics / Norman Page -- The influence of religion, science, and philosophy on Hardy's writings / Robert Schweik -- Hardy and critical theory / Peter Widdowson -- Thomas Hardy and matters of gender / Kristin Brady -- Variants on genre: The return of the native, The mayor of Casterbridge, The hand of Ethelberta / Jakob Lothe -- The patriarchy of class: Under the greenwood tree, Far from the madding crowd, The woodlanders / Penny Boumelha -- The radical aesthetic of Tess of the d'Urbervilles / Linda M. Shires -- Hardy and readers: Jude the obscure / Dale Kramer -- Hardy as a nineteenth-century poet / Dennis Taylor -- The modernity of Thomas Hardy's poetry / John Paul Riquelme.