Thomas Hardys Vision of Wessex

Wessex did not spring full-born from Hardys imagination when he began to write. The first part of the book reveals in detail how Wessex became what it is, geographically, socially and culturally, beginning with his fist poem in the 1860s and ending with Winter Words, his last collection of verse. The second (briefer) part is an account of the impact of Hardys vision of Wessex on twentieth-century English culture, offering an explanation for Hardys endurance as a popular novelist.