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Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
Jude the Obscure
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'I’m an outsider to the end of my days!' Jude Fawley’s hopes of a university education are lost when he is trapped into marrying the earthy Arabella, who later abandons him. Moving to the town of Christminster where he finds work as a stonemason, Jude meets and falls in love with his cousin Sue... show more
'I’m an outsider to the end of my days!'

Jude Fawley’s hopes of a university education are lost when he is trapped into marrying the earthy Arabella, who later abandons him. Moving to the town of Christminster where he finds 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. Jude the Obscure, Hardy’s last novel, caused a public furor when it was first published, with its fearless and challenging exploration of class and sexual relationships.

This edition uses the unbowdlerized text of the first volume edition of 1895, and also includes a list for further reading, appendices and a glossary. In his introduction, Dennis Taylor examines biblical allusions and the critique of religion in Jude the Obscure, and its critical reception that led Hardy to abandon novel writing.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
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Format: hardcover
ISBN: 9780241382691
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Pages no: 528
Edition language: English
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Community Reviews
Book Ramblings
Book Ramblings rated it
5.0 Jude the Obscure
“Hey Jude, don't be afraidYou were made to go out and get herThe minute you let her under your skinThen you begin to make it better” I would caution anyone against taking romantic advice from Sir Paul McCartney, splendid music legend that he is. This is especially true for a Thomas Hardy protagonist...
Summer Reading Project, BookLikes Satellite
Summer Reading Project, BookLikes Satellite rated it
3.0 Jude the Obscure, by Thomas Hardy
Jude the Obscure has a (deserved) reputation as a difficult, anti-marriage novel. Like all of the other Hardy novels I've read, lives spin out of control and no one finds happiness. Jude's sin, as I saw it, was that he wanted what he couldn't have. As a child, Jude built up a dream to be a scholar i...
Thalia @ Pictures in the Words
Thalia @ Pictures in the Words rated it
3.0 Jude the Obscure (Review)
It’s taken me a long time to review this book, considering when I finished it, simply because I’m not entirely sure how I feel about it. It definitely had its ups and downs, and there are really disturbing moments that made me question if I liked this book at all. While it was mostly well written an...
aka Grasshopper
aka Grasshopper rated it
4.0 Stuck in the Wrong Century
Jude is an enigma to me. For all his radical ideals and lofty aspirations he is tragically under the influence of the two women in his life. He is twice tricked into marriage by one of them and willingly submits to the tempestuous cravings of the other because he views her as his soulmate and true w...
EpicFehlReader
EpicFehlReader rated it
I thought this novel was really well written, but did make for dense reading in parts. I was stunned at how dark the plot turned out to be - with the unhappy marriages, incest, childhood depression, class struggles... there seemed to be only glimpses of sunshine in Jude's life but I think that's wha...
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