Readers of the following story who have not yet arrived at middle age are asked to bear in mind that, in the days recalled by the tale, the home Corn Trade, on which so much of the action turns, had an importance that can hardly be realized by those accustomed to the sixpenny loaf of the present date, and to the present indifference of the public to harvest weather.

...

The text of this edition is based on the Wessex Edition of 1912, which was revised and corrected by the author. It has been collated with the Mellstock Edition of 1920, for which Hardy submitted final corrections.

"Backgrounds and Contexts" provides new and invaluable source material on Victorian Dorset and, in particular, Dorchester, Hardy’s native home and the town upon which Casterbridge is based. Included are six of Hardy’s nonfiction writings, notably excerpts from his essay "The Dorsetshire Laboure" (1883), in which he frankly comments on the social changes he has witnessed in the county. Hardy’s Wessex is further examined in an essay by Michael Millgate, by maps of Casterbridge and Wessex, and by a key to local place names. Christine Winfield discusses the novel’s manuscript and its complicated history.

"Criticism" collects seventeen wide-ranging assessments of the novel-six new to the Second Edition-from both contemporary and modern critics, including Virginia Woolf, Albert J. Guerard, Julian Moynahan, John Paterson, Michael Millgate, Irving Howe, J. Hillis Miller, Ian Gregor, Elaine Showalter, George Levine, William Greenslade, H. M. Daleski, and Suzanne Keen.

A Chronology and Selected Bibliography are also included.

Preface to the Second Edintion

A NOte on the Text

The Text of The Mayor of Casterbridge

　Preface

 The Mayor of Casterbridge

Backgrounds and Contexts

　Composition

　 Christine Winfield, The Manuscript of Hardy’s Mayor of Casterbridge

　Hardy’s Non-Fictional Writings

 　From The Life and Work of Thomas Hardy

 　[Dialect in the Novel]

 　From The Dorsetshire Labourer

 　From The Profitable Reading of Fiction

 　From Candour in English Fiction

 　From General Preface to the Novels and Poems

Hardy’s Wessex

 　Map of the Wessex of the Novel and Poems

 　Map of Casterbridge and Durnover (circa 1848)

 　Place Names in The Mayor of Casterbridge

 　A Note on the Corn Laws

 　Michael Millgate, The Evolution of Wessex Criticism

　Contemporary Reception

 　From The Athenaeum

 　[George Saintsbury], From The Saturday Review

 　[Richard Holt Hutton], From The Spectator

 　[William Dean Howells], From Harper’s New Monthly Magazine

Modern Criticism

 　Virginia Woolf, [Hardy’s Impression of Life]

 　Albert J. Guerard, [Henchard’s Self-Condemnation]

 　Julian Moynahan, The Mayor of Casterbridge and the Old Testament’s First Book of Samuel

 　John Paterson, The Mayor of Casterbridge as Tragedy

 　Michael Millgate, [The Role of Elizabeth-Jane]

 　Irving Howe, The Struggles of Men

 　J. Hillis Miller, [A Nightmare of Frustrated Desire]

 　Ian Gregor, A Man and His History

 　Elaine Showalter, The Unmanning of the Mayor of Casterbridge

 　George Levine, [Reversing the Real]

 　William Greenslade, Degenerate Spaces

 　H. M. Daleski, [The Paradoxes of Love]

 　Suzanne Keen, [Narrative Annexes: Mixen Lane]

Thomas Hardy: A Chronology

Selected Bibliography