Jude the Obscure

Home » Shop » Jude the Obscure

Thomas Hardy,

Jude the Obscure

Published by Osgood, McIlvaine, and Co, London, 1896

One of Hardy’s greatest novels, here in the hard to find First Edition, First State with all page numbers present on partial blanks in gatherings A - H. 

$650.00

One of Hardy’s greatest novels, here in the hard to find First Edition, First State with all page numbers present on partial blanks in gatherings A - H. 

Enquiry

One of Hardy’s greatest novels, here in the hard to find First Edition, First State with all page numbers present on partial blanks in gatherings A – H. 

The volume(s) measure about 20.8 cm. by 14.5 cm. by 4 cm.

Each leaf measures about 200 mm. by 135 mm.

The Full Title reads:

Jude the Obscure. By Thomas Hardy. With an Etching by H. Macbeth Raeburn and a Map of Wessex. “The letter killeth.” All Rights Reserved.

The publication history reads:

Osgood, McIlvaine, and Co., 45 Albemarle Street, London, 1896.

The volume is paginated as follows: viii, 516 p.

The volume measures 20.8 x 14.5 x 4 cm. Each leaf measures 200 x 135 mm

First Edition, Perfect First State.

The page numbering was altered during printing, so that sigs. A-H exist in two distinct states, often found mixed. In the first state page numbers are present on partially blank pages, but this was later altered to omit numbers at the chapter endings. In this copy all page numbers are present in gatherings A – H (Pg. 1 – 128) except for the full blank Pg. 88. All partially blank pages have page numbers making this copy a perfect First State.

Purdy, 86-91.

Original green cloth, titles to spine and roundel to front board gilt, top edge gilt, others untrimmed. Endpapers still fresh and not browned with only slight foxing, light markings to the cloth, corners slightly bumped. Etched frontispiece on series-title verso, with original tissue guard (now foxed), map of Wessex at end. Pages clean, bright, not browned, with minimal chips, and fox marks. A very good to near fine copy.

Please Take the Time Necessary to Review The Photographs On Our Website In Order To Gain The Fullest Possible Understanding Of The Content And Condition Of This Volume.

.

Of Jude the Obscure

Today considered one of Hardy’s greatest novels, Jude the Obscure, published in 1895, met with strong negative response from the Victorian public because of its controversial treatment of sex, religion and marriage. Its apparent attack on the institution of marriage caused strain on Hardy’s already difficult marriage because Emma Hardy was concerned that Jude the Obscure would be read as autobiographical. Some booksellers sold the novel in brown paper bags, and Walsham How, the Bishop of Wakefield, is reputed to have burnt his copy. In his postscript of 1912, Hardy humorously referred to this incident as part of the career of the book: “After these [hostile] verdicts from the press its next misfortune was to be burnt by a bishop – probably in his despair at not being able to burn me”. Despite this, Hardy had become a celebrity by the 1900s, but some argue that he gave up writing novels because of the criticism of both Tess of the D’Urbervilles and Jude the Obscure.

Jude the Obscure began as a magazine serial in December 1894 and was first published in book form in 1895. It is Hardy’s last completed novel. Its protagonist, Jude Fawley, is a working-class young man, a stonemason, who dreams of becoming a scholar. The other main character is his cousin, Sue Bridehead, who is also his central love interest. The novel is concerned in particular with issues of class, education, religion, morality and marriage.

FEATURED PRODUCTS

You've just added this product to the cart: