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Jude the Obscure
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Format: Paperback / softback
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Jude the Obscure
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Moving to Christminster to work as a stonemason, Jude meets and falls in love with his cousin Sue Bridehead, a sensitive, freethinking "New Woman". Refusing to marry merely for the sake of religious convention, Jude and Sue decide instead to live together, but they are shunned by society, and poverty soon threatens to ruin them.
Thomas Hardy's last novel, Jude the Obscure is a fearless exploration of the hypocrisy of Victorian society, edited with an introduction by Dennis Taylor in Penguin Classics.
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Description
Jude the Obscure tells the story of Jude Fawley, a stonemason excluded not by his wits but by poverty from the world of Christminster privilege. He finds fulfilment in his relationship with Sue Bridehead. Both have left earlier marriages.
Ironically, when tragedy tests their union, it is Sue, the modern emancipated woman, who proves unequal to the challenge. Hardy's fearless exploration of sexual and social relationships and his prophetic critique of marriage scandalised the late Victorian establishment and marked the end of his career as a novelist.
Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?
Jude the Obscure is lauded for its sublime style and is considered a masterpiece of tragic writing. T.S. Eliot praised its stylistic excellence, while Virginia Woolf regarded Thomas Hardy as the greatest tragic writer in English literature.
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9780140435382
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Format: Paperback / softback
Date Published: 07 May 1998
Country: United Kingdom
Imprint: Penguin Classics
Contributors:
- Edited by Dennis Taylor
Audience: General / adult
DIMENSIONS
Spine width: 23.0mm
Width: 130.0mm
Height: 198.0mm
Weight: 364g
Pages: 528
About the Author
Thomas Hardy was born in Dorset in 1840 and became an apprentice architect at the age of sixteen. He spent his twenties in London, where he wrote his first poems. In 1867 Hardy returned to his native Dorset, whose rugged landscape was a great source of inspiration for his writing. Between 1871 and 1897 he wrote fourteen novels, including Tess of the D'Urbervilles and Jude the Obscure. This final work was received savagely; thereafter Hardy turned away from novels and spent the last thirty year of his life focusing on poetry. He died in 1928.
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