My thesis Early Green Narratives and the Rise of Bioregionalism. An Ecocritical Perspective on British Fiction, 1880-1920 is a historical, conceptual and interdisciplinary study in which I examine ideas and representations of the natural environment in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Britain from an ecocritical perspective. Ecocriticism, a rapidly expanding field of study and critical approach, explores representations of the relationship between human and non-human life, and considers the place of literature in the struggle against environmental destruction. Focusing mainly on the works of Thomas Hardy, Eden Phillpotts, William Morris, D. H. Lawrence and Edward Thomas, I give a historically specific analysis of fictional representations of the natural environment and argue that these writers share, to a different extent and in different ways, common ground with bioregionalism. Bioregionalism, a recent movement and concept in geography, can be defined as comprising the theory and practice of an environmentally friendly policy of living with an emphasis on place. Evaluating the representations of nature in terms of their coherence and usefulness to the current environmental crisis, I argue that these five writers, challenging the logic of anthropocentrism and industrialism, envisage sustainable solutions to environmental problems. However, in examining the extent to which nature was used as a site for the projection of ideas, and the ideological complexities behind them, I seek to show that these bioregional narratives interact, in different and complex ways, with other environmental concepts and movements, such as ecosocialism, ecotourism, and ecofascism. Focussing on how differently the social and natural environment were perceived to interact, I will emphasise the breadth of approaches to place within bioregional fiction. Locating the fictional roots of bioregionalism, Early Green Narratives is informed by the belief that we can learn much from historical models, such as offered by Hardy, Phillpotts, Morris, Thomas, and Lawrence.