ABSTRACT
Gender criticism constitutes one of the most exciting bodies of work on Hardy. It is also one of the most daunting, partly because of its sheer bulk and partly because of the multiplicity of gender issues and ideologies inherent in Hardy’s oeuvre. Not surprisingly, Hardy’s critics have operated contentiously, reaching multiple, often conflicting and contradictory conclusions about gender in his work, all of which can be supported by reference to the works themselves. In what follows I will attempt to chart a path through the dense terrain of this body of criticism, an exercise that I hope will be a useful addition to previous overviews,2 and to speculate about the future of Hardy and gender studies.
