This edition incorporates an original introduction from Moorside Press, including a biography, a critical discussion of Hardy's place in the history of British Literature and a short contextual discussion of the book.

Published in 1895 initially in serial form, Jude the Obscure was the eleventh of Hardy's novels to go into print, but the last he wrote. The plot details the trials and tribulations of the eponymous character, Jude Fawley, a penniless orphan who is never the less intelligent and ambitious. Yet for each step he takes forward, seeking to fulfil his ambitions for learning and for love, he is beaten back by a society that says it has no place available to him.
Jude is in some respects a companion piece to Tess, both characters hounded from this life by social and institutional mores with scarcely any apparent sympathy from the author for their wellbeing or for the hearts of the readers. While resolution is achievable in both books, satisfaction or a sense of a justified conclusion are not.

In Jude, Hardy saved his biggest punches for the church and for marriage, two of the principal institutions upon which Victorian Britain was built upon, and he couldn't have been surprised when that society retaliated. In one instance, the book was publically burned by a leading Bishop for its attacks on the church. Following the criticism, Hardy made the decision to end his novel writing and concentrate instead on his poetry.