About the Author

Thomas Hardy (1840–1928), enduring author of the twentieth century, wrote the classics Jude the Obscure, Tess of the d'Urbervilles, Far from the Madding Crowd, The Return of the Native, The Mayor of Casterbridge, and many other works. Scott Elledge was Goldwin Smith Professor of English Emeritus at Cornell University. He was the author of E. B. White: A Biography and Wider than the Sky: Poems Selected for Young Readers. He was the editor of the Norton Critical Edition of Paradise Lost, Eighteenth-Century Critical Essays, and Milton’s "Lycidas": An Approach to Criticism.

Reviews

Hardy's classic 1891 novel, about a young woman's attempt at redemption following a scandal, demonstrates his fatalistic view regarding free will. Audie Award winner Simon Vance's reading is straightforward, well paced, and clear, even when the characters speak in West Country dialect. This is an excellent choice for public libraries wanting to boost their classics collections, and the accompanying full-text PDF ebook (which can be played in tandem with the MP3 recording) makes it useful also for high school and academic libraries. [Audio clip available through www.tantor.com; alternate recordings recently available from Blackstone Audio (12 CDs. unabridged. 2008. ISBN 978-1-4332-1499-8. $110; 1 MP3-CD. ISBN 978-1-4332-1500-1. $44.95) and Naxos AudioBooks (14 CDs. unabridged. 2008. ISBN 978-962-634-867-3. $89.98).--Ed.]--Nann Blaine Hilyard, Zion-Benton P.L., Zion, IL Copyright 2008 Reed Business Information.