(Book Jacket Status: Not Jacketed) Set in the secluded forest community of Little Hintock, Thomas Hardy's "The Woodlanders" inextricably links the dramatic English landscape with the story of a woman caught between two rivals of radically different social statures. Grace Melbury is promised to her longtime companion, Giles Winterborne, a local woodlander and a gentle, steadfast man. When her socially motivated father pressures her to wed the ambitious doctor Edred Fitzpiers, Grace's loyalties shift--and her decision leads to tumultuous consequences. With its explorations of class and gender, lust and betrayal, "The Woodlanders" is one of Hardy's most vivid and powerful works. This Modern Library Paperback Classic is set from the text of the 1912 Wessex edition and includes Hardy's map of fictional Wessex. "The finest English novel."--Arnold Bennett

<b>James Wood</b> has been a full-time literary critic since leaving Cambridge University, first at <i>The Guardian</i> in London and currently at <i>The New Republic</i>. He is also the author of <i>The Broken Estate: Essays on Literature and Belief</i>.<br><br><br><i>From the Trade Paperback edition.</i>