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"Jude the Obscure", Thomas Hardy's last novel is the story of its title character Jude Fawley, a young lower-class man with dreams of being a scholar, and his relationships with his wife, Arabella, and his intellectual cousin, Sue. A classic and tragic tale that plays upon many themes, principally of which is the idea that ones ruinous downfall is the product of having sinned against a higher being, an idea that Hardy strongly objects to. "Jude the Obscure" is one of Hardy's finest and most intricate works which some suggest is strongly autobiographical.

Introduction and Notes by Norman Vance, Professor of English, University of Sussex Jude Fawley is a rural stone mason with intellectual aspirations. Frustrated by poverty and the indifference of the academic institutions at the University of Christminster, his only chance of fulfilment seems to lie in his relationship with his unconventional cousin, Sue Bridehead. But life as social outcasts proves undermining, and when tragedy occurs, Sue has no resilience and Jude is left in despair.

Jude the Obscure, the last completed of Thomas Hardy's novels, began as a magazine serial in December 1894 and was first published in book form in 1895. Its protagonist, Jude Fawley, is a working-class young man, a stonemason, who dreams of becoming a scholar. The other main character is his cousin, Sue Bridehead, who is also his central love interest. The novel is concerned in particular with issues of class, education, religion and marriage.The novel tells the story of Jude Fawley, who lives in a village in southern England (part of Hardy's fictional county of Wessex), who yearns to be a scholar at "Christminster", a city modelled on Oxford. As a youth, Jude teaches himself Classical Greek and Latin in his spare time, while working first in his great-aunt's bakery, with the hope of entering university. But before he can try to do this the naïve Jude is seduced by Arabella Donn, a rather coarse and superficial local girl who traps him into marriage by pretending to be pregnant. The marriage is a failure, and they separate by mutual agreement, and Arabella later emigrates to Australia, where she enters into a bigamous marriage. By this time, Jude has abandoned his classical studies.

Sexually innocent Jude Fawley is trapped into marriage by seductive Arabella Donn, but their union is an unhappy one and Arabella leaves him. Jude's welcome freedom allows him to pursue his obsession with his pretty cousin Sue Bridehead, a brilliant, charismatic free-thinker who would be his ideal soul-mate if not for her aversion to physical love. When Jude and Sue decide to lead their lives outside marriage they bring down on themselves all the force of a repressive society. This fearless and outspoken story caused a furore on its publication, and was Hardy's last novel.

Powerful and controversial from its 1895 publication to the present, Jude the Obscure scandalized Victorian critics, who condemned it as decadent, indecent, and degenerate. Between its frank portrayals of sexuality and its indictments of marriage, religion, and England's class system, the novel offended a broad swath of readers. Its heated reception led the embittered author to renounce fiction, turning his considerable talents ever afterward to writing poetry.Hardy's last novel depicts a changing world, where a poor stonemason can aspire to a university education and a higher place in society — but where in reality such dreams remain unattainable. Thwarted at every turn, Jude Hawley abandons his hopes, is trapped into an unwise marriage, and pursues a doomed relationship with his free-spirited cousin, Sue Bridehead. The lovers find themselves equally incapable of living within the conventions of their era and of transcending its legal and moral strictures. Hailed by modern critics as a pioneering work of feminism and socialist thought, Hardy's tragic parable continues to resonate with readers.

Working-class Jude Fawley longs to be a scholar. But after scheming local girl Arabella Donn traps him in marriage, Jude finds his university dreams drifting away. When his wife abandons him, a window of opportunity opens, and Jude moves to Christminster to work as a stonemason—his eye still on his studies. Then he falls in love with the modern-minded Sue Bridehead, and his descent into scandal, tragedy, and ruin truly begins. Shunned by society and the church, the outcasts find themselves on the brink of despair.Thomas Hardy’s fearless exploration of love, marriage, religion, and the Victorian stranglehold on the poor incited such outrage that Hardy never wrote another novel. Jude the Obscure remains one of the most righteously angry and deeply radical works of the nineteenth century.Revised edition: Previously published as Jude the Obscure, this edition of Jude the Obscure (AmazonClassics Edition) includes editorial revisions.

Jude the Obscure was the last of Thomas Hardy’s novels, created at the peak of his literary powers. It is perhaps his most revered – and controversial work. When the novel first appeared in 1895, its critical reception was so negative that Hardy resolved never to write again. Jude savagely criticized the Britain he lived in: the education system, social mobility and the institute of marriage. The book introduced one of the first feminist characters in English literature the intellectual, free-spirited Sue Bridehead.The eponymous Jude Fawley attempts to improve his lot in life through education but tragedy and misadventure thwart his every step. The novel explores several themes of social unrest, especially concerning the institutions of marriage, Christianity, and the university. Although the central characters represent both perspectives, the novel as a whole is firmly critical of Christianity and social institutions in general.Hardy claimed that "No book he had ever written contained less of his own life," but contemporary reviewers found several parallels between the themes of the novel and Hardy's life as a working-class man of letters. The unhappy marriages, the religious and philosophical questioning, and the social unrest of Jude appear in many other Hardy novels and in Hardy's life. The struggle against fixed class boundaries is an especially important link between the novel and Hardy's life, especially concerning higher education and the working class.Although Jude wishes to attend the university at Christminster, he cannot afford to pay for a degree, and he lacks the rigorous lifelong training necessary to qualify for a fellowship. He is therefore prevented from gaining economic mobility out of the working class. This theme of unattainable education was personal for Hardy since he, like Jude, was not able to afford a degree at Oxford or Cambridge, in spite of his early interest in scholarship and the classics. Several specific details about Jude's self-directed studies actually appear in Hardy's autobiography, including their late-night Latin readings while working full-time as a stonemason or architect, respectively.Another parallel between the book's characters/themes and Hardy's actual life experience occurs when Sue becomes obsessed with religion after previously having been indifferent and even hostile towards it. Through this extreme change in the character of Sue, Hardy shows Christianity as an extraordinarily powerful social force that is capable of causing a seemingly independent-minded woman like Sue to be self-immolating and sexually repressed.Like Sue Bridehead, Hardy's first wife, Emma, went from being free-spirited and fairly indifferent to religion in her youth to becoming obsessively religious as she got older. Since Hardy was always highly critical of organised religion, as Emma became more and more religious, their differing views led to a great deal of tension in their marriage, and this tension was a major factor leading to their increased alienation from one another.Emma Hardy was also very disapproving of Jude the Obscure, in part because of the book's criticisms of religion, but also because she worried that the reading public would believe that the relationship between Jude and Sue directly paralleled her strained relationship with Hardy - which, in a figurative sense, it did.

Thomas Hardy’s final literary masterpiece, Jude the Obscure is the story of Jude Fawley, a poor stonemason living in rural Wessex, whose dreams of becoming a scholar are complicated by an ill-fated romance with his spirited cousin, Sue Bridehead. Jude and Sue’s attempts to defy social conventions for the sake of their love lead to misery, heartache and tragedy. Greatly concerned with the destructive rules of marriage, the novel openly criticizes Victorian society, religion and education, and modern critics hail Jude the Obscure as a pioneering work of feminism and socialist thought.Jude the Obscure scandalised critics upon its publication in 1895, leading to Hardy’s decision to only produce poetry and drama for the rest of his writing life. It has been adapted twice for film, and remains one of Hardy’s most widely-read novels.HarperPerennialClassics brings great works of literature to life in digital format, upholding the highest standards in ebook production and celebrating reading in all its forms. Look for more titles in the HarperPerennial Classics collection to build your digital library.