Jude the Obscure,
by Thomas Hardy, Patricia Ingham, Dennis Taylor, Jenny Sterlin, Mark Oxford, James Oliver Smith Jr.
by Thomas Hardy, Patricia Ingham, Dennis Taylor, Jenny Sterlin, Mark Oxford, James Oliver Smith Jr.
by Thomas Hardy, Patricia Ingham, Dennis Taylor, Jenny Sterlin, Mark Oxford, James Oliver Smith Jr.
Hardy's last work of fiction, Jude the Obscure is also one of his most gloomily fatalistic, depicting the lives of individuals who are trapped by forces beyond their control. Jude Fawley, a poor villager, wants to enter the divinity school at Christminster. Sidetracked by Arabella Donn, an earthy country girl who pretends to be pregnant by him, Jude marries her and is then deserted. He earns a living as a stonemason at Christminster; there he falls in love with his independent-minded cousin, Sue Bridehead. Out of a sense of obligation, Sue marries the schoolmaster Phillotson, who has helped her. Unable to bear living with Phillotson, she returns to live with Jude and eventually bears his children out of wedlock. Their poverty and the weight of society's disapproval begin to take a toll on Sue and Jude; the climax occurs when Jude's son by Arabella hangs Sue and Jude's children and himself. In penance, Sue returns to Phillotson and the church. Jude returns to Arabella and eventually dies miserably. The novel's sexual frankness shocked the public, as did Hardy's criticisms of marriage, the university system, and the church. Hardy was so distressed by its reception that he wrote no more fiction, concentrating solely on his poetry.Please Note: This book is easy to read in true text, not scanned images that can sometimes be difficult to decipher. The Microsoft eBook has a contents page linked to the chapter headings for easy navigation. The Adobe eBook has bookmarks at chapter headings and is printable up to two full copies per year. Both versions are text searchable.
Hardy's last work of fiction, Jude the Obscure is also one of his most gloomily fatalistic, depicting the lives of individuals who are trapped by forces beyond their control. Jude Fawley, a poor villager, wants to enter the divinity school at Christminster. Sidetracked by Arabella Donn, an earthy country girl who pretends to be pregnant by him, Jude marries her and is then deserted. He earns a living as a stonemason at Christminster; there he falls in love with his independent-minded cousin, Sue Bridehead. Out of a sense of obligation, Sue marries the schoolmaster Phillotson, who has helped her. Unable to bear living with Phillotson, she returns to live with Jude and eventually bears his children out of wedlock. Their poverty and the weight of society's disapproval begin to take a toll on Sue and Jude; the climax occurs when Jude's son by Arabella hangs Sue and Jude's children and himself. In penance, Sue returns to Phillotson and the church. Jude returns to Arabella and eventually dies miserably. The novel's sexual frankness shocked the public, as did Hardy's criticisms of marriage, the university system, and the church. Hardy was so distressed by its reception that he wrote no more fiction, concentrating solely on his poetry.Please Note: This book is easy to read in true text, not scanned images that can sometimes be difficult to decipher. The Microsoft eBook has a contents page linked to the chapter headings for easy navigation. The Adobe eBook has bookmarks at chapter headings and is printable up to two full copies per year. Both versions are text searchable.
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Find Jude the Obscure Thomas Hardy in PDF, EPUB, ebook, audiobook, print, or library editions.
Find Jude the Obscure Thomas Hardy in PDF, EPUB, ebook, audiobook, print, or library editions.
7 books in catalog
Set against the rugged, semi-fictional landscape of Wessex, nineteenth-century English fiction gained a deep exploration of rural class struggles, tragic fate, and social constraints in novels such as Tess of the d'Urbervilles and Far From the Madding Crowd. Thomas Hardy built this enduring regional setting based on the countryside of his native Dorset, crafting complex narratives where characters battle against environmental conditions and rigid social expectations. Although he initially earned his literary reputation through serial prose, Hardy viewed himself primarily as a poet who composed novels mainly to secure financial stability.
Born on June 2, 1840, in Higher Bockhampton near Dorchester, Hardy was the son of a builder and stonemason father and an intellectually curious mother, Jemima, who strongly influenced his early intellectual development. At age sixteen, he was apprenticed to Dorchester architect John Hicks, beginning a career in architecture that included professional work in London. His architectural training and familiarity with southwestern England shaped his detailed spatial descriptions and keen sensitivity to rural heritage.
After debuting in prose fiction with works like Under the Greenwood Tree in 1872, Hardy achieved widespread public success with Far From the Madding Crowd in 1874. Throughout the 1870s and 1880s, he maintained an active publishing schedule with novels such as The Return of the Native, The Mayor of Casterbridge, and The Woodlanders, mostly serialized in popular magazines. Following public controversy and critical backlash over the moral themes in Tess of the d'Urbervilles and Jude the Obscure during the 1890s, Hardy abandoned novel writing entirely and devoted the final decades of his life at Max Gate in Dorchester to poetry until his death on January 11, 1928.
As a Victorian realist influenced by Romanticism and writers like William Wordsworth, Hardy combined naturalistic fatalism with acute social critique. His fiction repeatedly presents tragic protagonists struggling against personal passions, declining agricultural traditions, and unforgiving social circumstances. He mapped his stories onto the semi-fictional region of Wessex, transforming rural South West England into a unified literary setting. Beyond his realistic prose, Hardy incorporated elements of folklore and the supernatural into his poetry and early fiction such as The Hand of Ethelberta, reflecting a nuanced engagement with multiple literary traditions.
7 books in catalog
Set against the rugged, semi-fictional landscape of Wessex, nineteenth-century English fiction gained a deep exploration of rural class struggles, tragic fate, and social constraints in novels such as Tess of the d'Urbervilles and Far From the Madding Crowd. Thomas Hardy built this enduring regional setting based on the countryside of his native Dorset, crafting complex narratives where characters battle against environmental conditions and rigid social expectations. Although he initially earned his literary reputation through serial prose, Hardy viewed himself primarily as a poet who composed novels mainly to secure financial stability.
Born on June 2, 1840, in Higher Bockhampton near Dorchester, Hardy was the son of a builder and stonemason father and an intellectually curious mother, Jemima, who strongly influenced his early intellectual development. At age sixteen, he was apprenticed to Dorchester architect John Hicks, beginning a career in architecture that included professional work in London. His architectural training and familiarity with southwestern England shaped his detailed spatial descriptions and keen sensitivity to rural heritage.
After debuting in prose fiction with works like Under the Greenwood Tree in 1872, Hardy achieved widespread public success with Far From the Madding Crowd in 1874. Throughout the 1870s and 1880s, he maintained an active publishing schedule with novels such as The Return of the Native, The Mayor of Casterbridge, and The Woodlanders, mostly serialized in popular magazines. Following public controversy and critical backlash over the moral themes in Tess of the d'Urbervilles and Jude the Obscure during the 1890s, Hardy abandoned novel writing entirely and devoted the final decades of his life at Max Gate in Dorchester to poetry until his death on January 11, 1928.
As a Victorian realist influenced by Romanticism and writers like William Wordsworth, Hardy combined naturalistic fatalism with acute social critique. His fiction repeatedly presents tragic protagonists struggling against personal passions, declining agricultural traditions, and unforgiving social circumstances. He mapped his stories onto the semi-fictional region of Wessex, transforming rural South West England into a unified literary setting. Beyond his realistic prose, Hardy incorporated elements of folklore and the supernatural into his poetry and early fiction such as The Hand of Ethelberta, reflecting a nuanced engagement with multiple literary traditions.
