Thomas Hardy; Jude the Obscure

Series No.: SMC 077

ISBN: 978-1557132031, Pages:

English Literature, Fiction

A Sun & Moon title.

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Hardy's last novel, Jude the Obscure, is one of the great masterworks of the fin de siècle, a work that capped Hardy's exploration of Wessex working class figures. But Jude the Obscure is an exceptional novel not only because of its unforgettable characters, the aspiring Jude Fawley, the modern and emancipated Sue Bridehead, and the morose child, nicknamed "Little Father Time," but because of its intense exploration of cultural and familial taboos which destroy its strong heroes. Over the century there have been many editions of Hardy's great novel, but few have been as lovely as this one, printed on acid-free paper. Reprinted from the first American edition, this book represents part of Sun & Moon's attempt to publish by the end of our own century several major works of the fin de siècle.

Born in 1840 in Dorset, Thomas Hardy began as an architect, writing his first literary works in the early 1870s. Late that decade and far into the next, Hardy was to produce his most beloved works, including The Return of the Native, The Mayor of Casterbridge, and The Woodlanders.