Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more. Thomas Hardys last finished novel, Jude the Obscure, explores all the big issues: class, faith, hope, love, sex. It includes a new chronology and bibliography and substantially revised notes.ĪBOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. This is the first truly critical edition, taking account of the changes that Hardy made over twenty-five years.

Hardy's last and most controversial novel, Jude the Obscure caused outrage when it was published in 1895. The shocking fate that overtakes them is an indictment of a rigid and uncaring society. He falls in love with his unconventional cousin Sue Bridehead, and their refusal to marry when free to do so confirms their rejection of and by the world around them. Jude Fawley, poor and working-class, longs to study at the University of Christminster, but he is rebuffed, and trapped in a loveless marriage. He tells them he is trying to find Christminster, and they say it is sometimes visible from the roof, but not today. He climbs a ladder onto the roof, where two men are working. 'Wherefore is light given to him that is in misery, and life unto the bitter in soul?' Jude walks a few miles north and comes to an old barn called the Brown House. Oxford Research Encyclopedias: Global Public Health.The European Society of Cardiology Series Throughout his agonized existence, the cloistered halls and facades of Christminister-where Jude wishes to study-tempt and mock him to rid himself of ignorance.Oxford Commentaries on International Law.

Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy