Medium Paperback, Near New Condition, 1985, 511 pages, ISBN 0 14 043131 4

Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy

Edited with an Introduction and Notes by C.H.Sisson

A haunting love story, Jude the Obscure is the most outspoken, the most powerful, and the most despairing of Thomas Hardy’s creations.

Jude Fawley, the stone-mason, whose academic ambitions are thwarted by poverty and the indifferent of the authorities of Christminster, appears to find fulfilment in his relationship with Sue Bridehead. Both of them have fled from previous marriages, and together they share a ‘two-in-oneness’ rarely matched. Ironically, when tragedy strikes it is Sue, the modern, emancipated thinker – the last and greatest of Hardy’s heroines, ranking with Emma Bovary and Anna Karenin – who is unequal to the challenge.

Its literary qualities apart, Jude the Obscure is also a rich source of social history, accurately reflecting within its pages the encroachment of the modern, developing world on the rural traditions of England.