Jude the Obscure - Softcover

Hardy, Thomas; Howe, Irving

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0395051916 ISBN 13: 9780395051917

Publisher: Wadsworth Publishing, 1972

Synopsis

A brooding tragedy which scandalised Hardy's contemporaries on first publication.

Jude's story -- his futile desire to better himself through education, his failed marriage and doomed love for the free-spirited Sue Bridehead -- shows with heartbreaking clarity the devastating effects of prejudice and oppression upon innocent minds, and forms a passionate plea for tolerance. It was met with widespread condemnation upon first publication in 1895 and, as a result, was the last novel Hardy ever wrote.

About this title

Book Description:

Thomas Hardy's last novel charts the life of Jude Fawley from his parochial childhood to his death in the collegiate city of Christminster, the centre of his intellectual dreams and their failure. Initially published as a much-abridged serial, the text first appeared in its full and present form in 1895.

From the Publisher:

In 1895 Hardy's final novel, the great tale of Jude The Obscure, sent shockwaves of indignation rolling across Victorian England. Hardy had dared to write frankly about sexuality and to indict the institutions of marriage, education, and religion. But he had, in fact, created a deeply moral work. The stonemason Jude Fawley is a dreamer; his is a tragedy of unfulfilled aims. With his tantalizing cousin Sue Bridehead, the last and most extraordinary of Hardy's heroines, Jude takes on the world--and discovers, tragically, its brutal indifference. The most powerful expression of Hardy's philosophy, and a profound exploration of man's essential loneliness, Jude The Obscure is a great and beautiful book. "His style touches sublimity."--T.S. Eliot

About this edition

• Publisher: Wadsworth Publishing
• Publication date: 1972
• ISBN 10: 0395051916
• ISBN 13: 9780395051917
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 352