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  • Published: 1 December 1996
  • ISBN: 9780553211917
  • Imprint: Bantam Dell
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 528
  • RRP: $16.99

Jude the Obscure




Sue Bridehead, his last heroine, is an extaordinarily complex woman - an English Emma Bovary or Anna Karenina.

In 1895 Hardy’s final novel, the great tale of Jude the Obscure, sent shock waves 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

  • Published: 1 December 1996
  • ISBN: 9780553211917
  • Imprint: Bantam Dell
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 528
  • RRP: $16.99

Other books in the series

Russian Thinkers
The New Penguin Book Of American Short Stories, From Washington Irving To Lydia Davis
When You Are Old
The Black Tulip
The Lady of the Camellias
The Good Soldier
Selected Poetry
Venus in Furs
Man and Superman
Military Dispatches
The Prelude

About the author

Thomas Hardy

Thomas Hardy (1840–1928) wrote stories, novellas, and novels. His work exposed the injustices of Victorian society. However, following the widespread outrage in reaction to his novel Jude the Obscure, Hardy abandoned fiction altogether and spent his last years writing poetry.

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