About the Author

Peter Widdowson is Professor of English the University of Gloucestershire. He has published widely on a range of topics, recent books including: i>Literature (1999); The Palgrave Guide to English Literature and Its Contexts, 1500-2000 (2004); A Reader’s Guide to Contemporary Literary Theory, 5th edtn. (with Raman Selden and Peter Brooker (2005); Graham Swift (2005). But he is perhaps best known for his writings on Hardy: Hardy in History: A Study in Literary Sociology (1989); (ed.), Tess of the d’Urbervilles: A New Casebook (1993); On Thomas Hardy: Late Essays and Earlier (1998); (ed.) Thomas Hardy: Selected Poetry and Non-Fictional Prose (1996); (ed. with Tim Dolin), Thomas Hardy and Contemporary Literary Studies (2004), several of which contain essays on Hardy and film