'The Wages of Sin shares the same plot, same character types, same scenes, and even some of the language with Jude' (217). Notwithstanding this, Talia Schaffer suggests rather convincingly that Hardy was inspired to write Jude after reading The Wages of Sin (1890), a protofeminist novel written by Lucas Malet (real name: Mary St Leger Kingsley Harrison, 1852-1931 - the daughter of Charles Kingsley), with whom Hardy corresponded. She died in 1890 and left him in the deepest affliction. Outlining the scheme of his last and bleakest novel from his earliest notes made in 1887, he also explained that the direct impulse to write this novel was 'the death of a woman’ by whom Hardy most likely meant his cousin, Tryphena Sparks, to whom he was deeply attached. Both versions are text searchable.N the Preface to the first edition of Jude the Obscure Thomas Hardy provided information about its conception and genesis. The Adobe eBook has bookmarks at chapter headings and is printable up to two full copies per year. The Microsoft eBook has a contents page linked to the chapter headings for easy navigation. Hardy was so distressed by its reception that he wrote no more fiction, concentrating solely on his poetry.Please Note: This book is easy to read in true text, not scanned images that can sometimes be difficult to decipher. The novel's sexual frankness shocked the public, as did Hardy's criticisms of marriage, the university system, and the church. Jude returns to Arabella and eventually dies miserably. In penance, Sue returns to Phillotson and the church. Their poverty and the weight of society's disapproval begin to take a toll on Sue and Jude the climax occurs when Jude's son by Arabella hangs Sue and Jude's children and himself. Unable to bear living with Phillotson, she returns to live with Jude and eventually bears his children out of wedlock. Out of a sense of obligation, Sue marries the schoolmaster Phillotson, who has helped her.

He earns a living as a stonemason at Christminster there he falls in love with his independent-minded cousin, Sue Bridehead. Sidetracked by Arabella Donn, an earthy country girl who pretends to be pregnant by him, Jude marries her and is then deserted. Jude Fawley, a poor villager, wants to enter the divinity school at Christminster. Hardy's last work of fiction, Jude the Obscure is also one of his most gloomily fatalistic, depicting the lives of individuals who are trapped by forces beyond their control. British and irish fiction (fictional works by one author),Įnglish fiction, history and criticism, 19th century,

Thomas hardy novel jude the obscure