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Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy.
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Jude the Obscure
by Thomas Hardy
Thomas Hardy was born June 2, 1840, in the village of Upper Bockhampton, in Dorset. He was the eldest of four children of Thomas Hardy, a builder and master mason, ...
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Biography EssayIn the later years of his long life, Thomas Hardy was probably the most famous English man of letters of his time, his reputation extending throughout the world. He is now generally reg...
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The works of the English novelist, poet, and dramatist Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) unite the Victorian and modern eras. They reveal him to be a kind and gentle man, terribly aware of the pain human being...
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In the later years of his long life, Thomas Hardy was probably the most famous English man of letters of his time, his reputation extending throughout the world. He is now generally regarded as both a...
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One of Hardy's unusual claims to distinction as a poet is that his first book of verse was not published until he was fifty-eight and had already achieved fame as a novelist. In the next thirty years,...
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A writer who expressed himself prolifically and successfully in both prose and verse, Thomas Hardy hoped to be remembered for his poetry. Toward the end of his life he remarked that his sole literary ...
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In the following review, which was originally published in Harper's Weekly in December 1895, Howells praises the "artistic excellence" of Jude the Obscure and defends it to his co...
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In the following essay, Rachman perceives two major themes in Jude the Obscure—those relating to the flesh and those relating to the spirit—and describes how these two themes come into c...
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In the following essay, Jacobus accepts Hardy's contention that Jude the Obscure is a novel of contrasting ideas, and thus analyzes the work by focusing on the character of Sue Bridehead, rathe...
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In the following essay, Blake probes Hardy's portrayal of the feminine in Jude the Obscure, noting that Sue Bridehead, in repressing her sexual urges as part of a "deliberate effort at w...
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In the following essay, Goode concentrates on the character of Sue Bridehead as he examines Jude the Obscure in terms of late nineteenth-century feminism, and explores the means by which the novel exp...
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In the following essay, Langland investigates Hardy's portrayal of Sue Bridehead in Jude the Obscure, concluding that she is an "unevenly conceived character" riddled with inconsi...
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In the following excerpt, Sonstroem focuses on Jude's at times "disorderly, random, [and repetitive" migrations within the structured course of Jude the Obscure to illustrate the ...
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In the following essay, Fischler comments on the bird motif in Jude the Obscure and its relation to the theme and structure of the novel.
Though the manuscript evidence concerning the first pages of J...
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In the following essay, Edwards and Edwards interpret the unconscious motivations of Jude, arguing that he "fails ultimately because he is too rational and too controlled."
When Thomas H...
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In the following essay, Goetz explores elements of Jude the Obscure that form a critique of marriage.
Matrimony have growed to be that serious in these days that one really do feel afeard to move in ...
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In the following essay, Saldívar probes the nature of meaning and referentiality in relation to Hardy's novel, contending that "the narrative of Jude the Obscure, while telling the ...
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In the following excerpt from a review that originally appeared in Cosmopolis in January 1896, Gosse remarks favorably on characterization and plot in Jude the Obscure, calling the novel "irres...
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In the following essay, Abdoo maintains that Jude the Obscure is a tragic novel in the classical tradition.
All tragedy is grotesque. (Thomas Hardy, Life, August 13, 1898)
Introduction
Virginia Wool...
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In the following essay, Mallett discusses the relation between the confines of language and those of gender ideology in Jude the Obscure; he observes that "through its interruptions, silences, ...
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In the following essay, Berman examines the bleak psychology of parents and children that appears in Jude the Obscure.
Little Father Time's suicide in Jude the Obscure (1895) is the turning poi...
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In the following essay, Kelly studies Jude's existential separation from society and his desire for "a sense of belonging and integration."
"He could not realize himself.&#...
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In the following essay, Langland evaluates Jude's dilemma of identity in terms of his struggles with the social ideologies of class and gender.
Because Thomas Hardy's representations of ...
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In the following excerpt from a review originally published in Blackwood's Magazine in January 1896, Oliphant describes Jude the Obscure "as an assault on the stronghold of marriage.�...
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In the following excerpted review, originally published in The Savoy in October 1896, Ellis calls Jude the Obscure "a singularly fine piece of art," adding "this book, it is said,...
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In the following essay, Mizener argues that Jude the Obscure is not a tragedy in the sense that it represents the contrast between the ideal life and the "permanently squalid real life of man,&...
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In the following essay, McDowell explores the symbolism of Jude the Obscure, contending that the novel's images "parallel events and deepen realistic and psychological aspects of the nar...
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In the following essay, originally published in 1961, Alvarez claims that "the power of Jude the Obscure is … fictional rather than poetic" and sees the novel as essentially a stu...
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In the following essay, Heilman examines Hardy's complex portrayal of the character of Sue Bridehead, calling it "an imaginative feat" that expresses Hardy's perception of ...
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In the following essay, Benvenuto observes two differing modes of perception in Jude the Obscure: an objective, amoral mode that is indifferent to humanity and Jude's idealist, personalizing mo...
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In the following essay, Green addresses the concepts of gender relations and androgyny in A Pair of Blue Eyes and Jude the Obscure.
When Thomas Hardy finished his last novel, Jude the Obscure (1896), ...
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Teaching Jude the Obscure
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Jude the Obscure Lesson Plans contain 147 pages of teaching material, including:
Jude the Obscure
Thomas Hardy
Thomas Hardy
Critical Essay by W. D. Howells
