About the Book

In a letter after the publication of Jude the Obscure, Hardy said of his tragic novel that it was "really addressed to those into whose souls the iron of adversity has deeply entered at some time of their lives". Suffering is central to this novel about Jude Fawley, a stonemason excluded by class from the privileged world of learning at Christminster, and his relationship with a modern emancipated woman, Sue Bridehead. Both have left earlier marriages and together attempt to brave the harsh world of law and convention, relying on their own impulses.

Hardy's fearless exploration of sexual and social relationships and his radical critique of marriage scandalized the late Victorian establishment and marked the end of his career as a novelist. With Jude the Obscure Hardy has given us an extraordinarily complex heroine, an English Emma Bovary or Anna Karenin, and perhaps the most poignant expression of modern tragedy. This new Penguin Classics edition reprints the unbowdlerized first volume edition of 1895 with Hardy's "Postscript" of 1912.

Product Details

Media: Paperback Book, 528 pages

Language: English

Publisher: Penguin Books (Sep. 30th, 1998)

ISBN-10: 0140435387

ISBN-13: 9780140435382

Dimensions: 4.96 x 7.90 x 0.91 inches

Shipping Weight: 0.76 lbs

• Categories: Classics Fiction