The Complete Poetical Works of Thomas Hardy: Volume IV: The Dynasts, Parts First and Second
Dramatic Verse and Folk Adaptations
Thomas Hardy author Samuel Hynes editor
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Oxford University Press
Published:23rd Feb '95
Currently unavailable, currently targeted to be due back around 11th February 2025, but could change
This volume of Hardy's poetic works includes The Dynasts and folk adaptations, showcasing his lifelong interest in dramatic verse.
Part of an extensive collection, The Complete Poetical Works of Thomas Hardy: Volume IV: The Dynasts, Parts First and Second showcases the depth of Hardy's poetic talent. This volume not only features the major work known as The Dynasts, but also includes Hardy's adaptations of two folk-pieces: the Mummers' Play of Saint George and the operetta O'Jan, O'Jan, O'Jan, which is published here for the first time. These additions highlight Hardy's commitment to exploring various forms of dramatic expression throughout his career.
Hardy's fascination with dramatic verse spanned his entire adult life. Before he embarked on his novel-writing journey, he contemplated crafting plays in blank verse. Over the thirty years dedicated to fiction, he jotted down numerous ideas for an expansive poetic drama centered on England's conflicts with Napoleon. However, it was not until the 1890s, after shifting his focus back to poetry, that he began to develop his dramatic works, culminating in The Dynasts, which he wrote between 1902 and 1907.
This volume is enriched with textual annotations and a detailed account of the rough draft of Part Third of The Dynasts, allowing readers to trace the evolution of Hardy's epic drama. Explanatory notes accompany each dramatic piece, offering insights into their composition and publication, supplemented by relevant materials from Hardy's correspondence and notebooks. Appendices further illuminate the production and performance aspects of these significant works.
Samuel Hynes's task has been formidable...On each page of these two volumes there is clear evidence of Samuel Hynes's meticulous scholarship and enormous dedication. the textual variants alone are extraordinarily large in number, but Professor Hynes has supplemented them with explanatory notes, fascinating introductions, and a series of useful appendices.
meticulous edition * Times Literary Supplement *
With Volumes IV and V Samuel Hynes completes his immensely painstaking, definitive edition of Hardy's 'poetical works', begun in 1982. The effect is to throw the text, as Hynes establishes it, into clear relief. He does, indeed, establish it: his 'editorial task' has been to reconcile the several differing editions. * English Studies, Volume 77, Number 3, May 1996 *
On each page of these two volumes there is clear evidence of Samuel Hynes's meticulous scholarship and enormous dedication. The textual variants alone are extraordinarily large in number, but Professor Hynes has supplemented them with explanatory notes, fascinating introductions, and a series of useful appendices. * J.B. Bullen, Reading University, Review of English Studies, Vol. XLVII, No. 188, Nov ' 96 *
These two volumes complete this important edition. * Nineteenth-Century Literature 51:3 (December 1996) *
Hynes's choice of copy-text gives particular clarity to the listing, at the foot of the page, of all printed variants. * Charles Lock, University of Copenhagen, Essays in Criticism, Vol. XLVII, No. 3, July '97 *
ISBN: 9780198127857
Dimensions: 223mm x 142mm x 29mm
Weight: 669g
452 pages