Description
This story of tragic disillusionment and thwarted ambition, of sorrow and passion, is the last written of Hardy's novels. Its emphasis on ugliness, change and decay, in marked contrast to his earlier awareness of beauty, and its somebre, near-despairing, sometimes cynical tone, reflect the changes that had taken place in Hardy himself as he watched the nineteenth century draw to its close.Through his portrayal of dreams and hopes cruelly disappointed which constitute his hero's life, Hardy presents an analysis of the whole basis of the Victorian moral code which is remarkable in its perception, originally and courage. The bitter and hostile critical reaction which greeted Jude the Obscure's apperance in unexpurgated form in 1895 serves only as a measure of its importance, and of the success with which it acheived its objective, and it remains to this day one of the most popular and controversial of Hardy's novels.
This story of tragic disillusionment and thwarted ambition, of sorrow and passion, is the last written of Hardy's novels. Its emphasis on ugliness, change and decay, in marked contrast to his earlier awareness of beauty, and its somebre, near-despairing, sometimes cynical tone, reflect the changes that had taken place in Hardy himself as he watched the nineteenth century draw to its close.Through his portrayal of dreams and hopes cruelly disappointed which constitute his hero's life, Hardy presents an analysis of the whole basis of the Victorian moral code which is remarkable in its perception, originally and courage. The bitter and...
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