The text of the novel is again based on Hardy’s final revision for the 1912 Wessex Edition. The Norton Critical Edition includes: expanded footnotes, further drawing out Hardy’s web of allusions and comprehensively indicating the material culture in which he embeds this narrative; a selection of Hardy’s poems-four of them new to this edition-that emphasises the biographical contexts from which parts of Jude the Obscure arose; nineteen critical responses, including twelve modern essays-eight of them new to the third edition. Simon Gatrell, Michael Hollington, Elaine Showalter, Victor Luftig and Mary Jacobus are among the new voices. Included are a chronology, and revised and expanded selected bibliography.