Powerful and controversial from its 1895 publication to the present, Jude the Obscure scandalized Victorian critics, who condemned it as decadent, indecent, and degenerate.
Hardy\'s last novel de.
Its heated reception led the embittered author to renounce fiction, turning his considerable talents ever afterward to writing poetry.
Between its frank portrayals of sexuality and its indictments of marriage, religion, and England\'s class system, the novel offended a broad swath of readers.
Powerful and controversial from its 1895 publication to the present, Jude the Obscure scandalized Victorian critics, who condemned it as decadent, indecent, and degenerate