About the Book

"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.

All Editions

9780241382691
Hardcover, 3rd Edition
ISBN13: 9780241382691
Penguin Books Limited, 2019
9789350091005
Paperback
ISBN13: 9789350091005
2009
9780486452432
Paperback, 12th Edition
ISBN13: 9780486452432
Dover Publications, 2007
9780140435382
Paperback, 10th Edition
ISBN13: 9780140435382
Penguin Books, 1998
9781853262616
Paperback, 7th Edition
ISBN13: 9781853262616
Wordsworth Classics, 1998