Notes For November 1st, 2024

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This Day In Literary History

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On November 1st, 1895, Jude the Obscure, the classic novel by the legendary English writer Thomas Hardy, was published in book form. Like most novels of the time, it originally appeared in a serialized format.

The semi-autobiographical novel would cause a huge controversy with its themes of sexuality, marriage, class prejudice, and the destructive influence of religion.

A bleak, haunting drama, Jude the Obscure tells the story of Jude Fawley, a poor, working class youth who dreams of becoming a scholar and studying at the university in Christminister, a fictional city based on Oxford.

Unable to afford a proper primary education, Jude educates himself and soon becomes fluent in Latin and Greek. Unfortunately, his plans for Christminster are derailed when he becomes involved with Arabella Donn, the daughter of a local pig farmer.

Although intelligent, the kindly, naive Jude is no match for the vulgar, manipulative Arabella, who seduces him, then traps him in a hasty marriage to avoid scandal.

The loveless marriage doesn't last long, not because Jude wants out, but because Arabella deserts him. Jude moves to Christminster and supports himself as a mason while he studies alone, hoping to enter university sometime in the future.

He meets Sue Bridehead, a cousin of his. As Victorian women go, Sue is a rarity - she's a free-spirited, idealistic intellectual, a symbol of the waning power of Victorian values.

Although Sue has her flaws, Jude falls madly in love with her. She marries his former teacher, Mr. Philloston, and at first, she's satisfied with the normalcy and respectability of married life.

But she and her husband sleep in separate rooms, as she finds him physically repugnant. Her religious beliefs have led her to view sex as something disgusting and sinful. She's also in love with Jude.

An unhappy Sue finally leaves her husband. She and Jude decide to live together in a platonic relationship. As much as she loves Jude, Sue still can't bring herself to consummate that love.

Knowing their family history of unhappy marriages, they fear that if they marry, being legally bound to each other will destroy their love. The unmarried couple live as man and wife, and have two children together.

A child from Jude's previous marriage is bestowed on him; apparently, Arabella was pregnant when she deserted him. Their child is a boy who possesses his father's intelligence. But unlike Dad, he is intensely serious and morose.

Although Jude, Sue, and the children are a happy family, they are condemned and ostracized by society because Jude and Sue are unmarried. Whenever Jude's employers discover this, he's promptly sacked.

When their landlords find out, the family is evicted; this greatly disturbs Jude's son. One day, the boy murders his half-siblings and hangs himself, leaving behind a note that reads "Done because we are too menny."

The shock of the tragedy causes Sue to miscarry her unborn child. She turns to the Church that had cast her out and becomes convinced that the children's deaths were divine retribution for living in sin with Jude.

When Arabella learns of this, she tells Sue's ex-husband Mr. Philloston, who then proposes remarriage. Sue accepts. Jude is devastated, and the scheming Arabella takes advantage of his vulnerable mental state.

She gets him drunk and manipulates him into marrying her yet again. Later, Jude makes a final visit to Sue one frigid night. Although respectable and without sin in the eyes of society and the Church, Sue is miserable.

Exposure to the freezing weather causes Jude to get sick and his health begins to deteriorate. After he dies, his wife Arabella feels no sorrow. Instead of mourning Jude's passing, she sets out to snare another husband.

Jude the Obscure originally appeared in a serialized format in European and American literary magazines under the titles The Simpletons and Hearts Insurgent.

The serialized version was considerably different from the novel, as the magazine publishers insisted on a heavily sanitized version of the story.

When it was published in book form, in Thomas Hardy's original, unexpurgated version, Jude the Obscure caused a furor in Victorian England.

Critics trashed it as immoral, with one reviewer calling it Jude the Obscene. William Walsham How, England's Bishop of Wakefield, set the novel alight in a public burning.

Hardy was venomously denounced, accused of attacking the Church and the sanctity of marriage. Today, Jude the Obscure is considered a classic work of 19th century English literature - one of Hardy's finest novels.

It would also be his last. Disgusted by the public's reaction to Jude the Obscure, Thomas Hardy gave up writing fiction and devoted the rest of his literary career to writing plays and poetry.

---

Quote Of The Day

---

"The business of the poet and the novelist is to show the sorriness underlying the grandest things and the grandeur underlying the sorriest things."

- Thomas Hardy

---

Vanguard Video

---

Today's video features a complete reading of Thomas Hardy's classic novel, Jude the Obscure. Enjoy!

Notes For November 23rd, 2023

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This Day In Literary History

---

On November 23rd, 1874, Far From The Madding Crowd, the classic novel by the legendary English writer Thomas Hardy, was published in London.

It first appeared in a serialized format, published by Cornhill Magazine, which at the time was the main rival of All The Year Round, the literary magazine founded by Charles Dickens.

Far From The Madding Crowd is not only one of the greatest love stories ever written, it's also a classic tale of rural English life during the Victorian era. It tells a tale of true love complicated and delayed by stubbornness, pride, and circumstance.

Gabriel Oak is a successful sheep farmer nearing thirty years of age who falls in love with Bathsheba Everdene, a proud, vain, determined, and independent woman eight years his junior who has come to live with her aunt.

Bathsheba grows close to Gabriel - she even saves his life - but when he proposes marriage, she refuses, as she values her independence more than his love. She moves away miles out of town.

When Bathsheba and Gabriel are reunited sometime later, things have changed drastically for both of them. Gabriel is ruined when an inexperienced sheepdog runs his flock over the edge of a cliff.

After being forced to sell off all his possessions to settle his debts, Gabriel wanders about looking for work. He happens upon a dangerous fire ravaging a farm and helps to put it out.

When the owner of the farm comes over to thank him, it turns out to be Bathsheba, who inherited her uncle's estate. In need of a capable shepherd, she hires Gabriel, although it makes her uncomfortable.

Bathsheba has another admirer - a lonely, repressed, middle-aged farmer named William Boldwood. She decides to play a joke on him and sends him a valentine with the words "Marry Me" written on it. Boldwood, not realizing that it's just a joke, proposes marriage.

Bathsheba doesn't love him, but toys with the idea of marrying him. Despite his shortcomings, he's also affluent and the most eligible bachelor in town.

Instead of accepting Boldwood's proposal right away, she puts off giving him an answer and plays with his affections. When Gabriel finds out, he chides Bathsheba for her thoughtlessness. She fires him.

Later, when bloat threatens to kill all of her sheep, Bathsheba is finally forced to swallow her pride and beg Gabriel for help. He saves her flock, she hires him back, and they become friends again.

Soon, however, Bathsheba falls for a dashing soldier, Sgt. Francis "Frank" Troy. Gabriel discourages her from marrying him, telling her that she'd be better of with William Boldwood. In love with Troy, Bathsheba elopes with him.

When they return from their honeymoon, Troy is approached by Boldwood, who offers him a huge bribe in exchange for Bathsheba. He refuses, and Boldwood vows revenge.

Unfortunately for Bathsheba, her gallant husband soon shows his true colors - he's a compulsive gambler in love with another woman, whom he was going to marry. Her name was Fanny Robin.

On their wedding day, Fanny accidentally went to the wrong church. Mistakenly believing that she jilted him, a humiliated Troy called off the wedding, not knowing that Fanny was pregnant with his child.

Months later, Troy meets Fanny on the road. A destitute wreck about to give birth, Troy takes pity on her and gives her all the money he has on him. He plans to support her and the child, but she dies in childbirth with the baby.

Gabriel tries to conceal all of this from Bathsheba, but she finds out and has the coffin brought to her house. She opens it and sees both mother and child. Troy kisses Fanny's corpse.

Telling Bathsheba "This woman is more to me, dead as she is, than ever you were, or are, or can be," Troy leaves her. He takes a long walk to the coast, strips off his clothes, and bathes in the ocean. A riptide carries him out to sea and he's presumed dead.

William Boldwood still determines to marry Bathsheba. This time, out of guilt over all the pain she's caused him, (and others) she agrees to marry him in a few years, when she can have her husband declared legally dead. What she doesn't know is that he's still alive.

When Troy learns that Boldwood has forced Bathsheba to marry him, he returns on Christmas Eve to claim her. He finds her at Boldwood's house and she screams in horror when she sees him.

Boldwood, refusing to give her up, shoots Troy and kills him. He attempts suicide and is later sentenced to hang. Boldwood's death sentence is commuted on the grounds of insanity after his friends petition the Home Secretary for mercy.

Through all of her tribulations, Bathsheba came to rely more and more on her oldest and dearest friend, Gabriel Oak. But one day, he gives notice that he's resigning from her employ.

When she presses him for an explanation, Gabriel reluctantly admits that he's quitting to protect her good name, as people are gossiping that he wants to marry her.

Bathsheba finally realizes that he is the only one who ever truly cared about her - the only one who really loved her. When he summons the courage to ask for her hand again, she accepts without hesitation, and they marry quietly.

A huge hit with Victorian readers and critics, Far From the Madding Crowd would become an all-time classic novel, adapted for the stage, screen, radio, and television.

Thomas Hardy would write more classic novels, including Tess of the d'Urbervilles (1891) and Jude the Obscure (1895). He died in 1928 at the age of 87.

---

Quote Of The Day

---

"The business of the poet and the novelist is to show the sorriness underlying the grandest things and the grandeur underlying the sorriest things."

- Thomas Hardy

---

Vanguard Video

---

Today's video features a complete reading of Thomas Hardy's classic novel, Far From the Madding Crowd. Enjoy!

Notes For November 1st, 2023

---

This Day In Literary History

---

On November 1st, 1895, Jude the Obscure, the classic novel by the legendary English writer Thomas Hardy, was published in book form. Like most novels of the time, it originally appeared in a serialized format.

The semi-autobiographical novel would cause a huge controversy with its themes of sexuality, marriage, class prejudice, and the destructive influence of religion.

A bleak, haunting drama, Jude the Obscure tells the story of Jude Fawley, a poor, working class youth who dreams of becoming a scholar and studying at the university in Christminister, a fictional city based on Oxford.

Unable to afford a proper primary education, Jude educates himself and soon becomes fluent in Latin and Greek. Unfortunately, his plans for Christminster are derailed when he becomes involved with Arabella Donn, the daughter of a local pig farmer.

Although intelligent, the kindly, naive Jude is no match for the vulgar, manipulative Arabella, who seduces him, then traps him in a hasty marriage to avoid scandal.

The loveless marriage doesn't last long, not because Jude wants out, but because Arabella deserts him. Jude moves to Christminster and supports himself as a mason while he studies alone, hoping to enter university sometime in the future.

He meets Sue Bridehead, a cousin of his. As Victorian women go, Sue is a rarity - she's a free-spirited, idealistic intellectual, a symbol of the waning power of Victorian values.

Although Sue has her flaws, Jude falls madly in love with her. She marries his former teacher, Mr. Philloston, and at first, she's satisfied with the normalcy and respectability of married life.

But she and her husband sleep in separate rooms, as she finds him physically repugnant. Her religious beliefs have led her to view sex as something disgusting and sinful. She's also in love with Jude.

An unhappy Sue finally leaves her husband. She and Jude decide to live together in a platonic relationship. As much as she loves Jude, Sue still can't bring herself to consummate that love.

Knowing their family history of unhappy marriages, they fear that if they marry, being legally bound to each other will destroy their love. The unmarried couple live as man and wife, and have two children together.

A child from Jude's previous marriage is bestowed on him; apparently, Arabella was pregnant when she deserted him. Their child is a boy who possesses his father's intelligence. But unlike Dad, he is intensely serious and morose.

Although Jude, Sue, and the children are a happy family, they are condemned and ostracized by society because Jude and Sue are unmarried. Whenever Jude's employers discover this, he's promptly sacked.

When his landlords find out, the family is evicted; this greatly disturbs Jude's son. One day, the boy murders his half-siblings and hangs himself, leaving behind a note that reads "Done because we are too menny."

The shock of the tragedy causes Sue to miscarry her unborn child. She turns to the Church that had cast her out and becomes convinced that the children's deaths were divine retribution for living in sin with Jude.

When Arabella learns of this, she tells Sue's ex-husband Mr. Philloston, who then proposes remarriage. Sue accepts. Jude is devastated, and the scheming Arabella takes advantage of his vulnerable mental state.

She gets him drunk and manipulates him into marrying her yet again. Later, Jude makes a final visit to Sue one frigid night. Although respectable and without sin in the eyes of society and the Church, Sue is miserable.

Exposure to the freezing weather causes Jude to get sick and his health begins to deteriorate. After he dies, his wife Arabella feels no sorrow. Instead of mourning Jude's passing, she sets out to snare another husband.

Jude the Obscure originally appeared in a serialized format in European and American literary magazines under the titles The Simpletons and Hearts Insurgent.

The serialized version was considerably different from the novel, as the magazine publishers insisted on a heavily sanitized version of the story.

When it was published in book form, in Thomas Hardy's original, unexpurgated version, Jude the Obscure caused a furor in Victorian England.

Critics trashed it as immoral, with one reviewer calling it Jude the Obscene. William Walsham How, England's Bishop of Wakefield, set the novel alight in a public burning.

Hardy was venomously denounced, accused of attacking the Church and the sanctity of marriage. Today, Jude the Obscure is considered a classic work of 19th century English literature - one of Hardy's finest novels.

It would also be his last. Disgusted by the public's reaction to Jude the Obscure, Hardy gave up writing fiction and devoted the rest of his literary career to writing plays and poetry.

---

Quote Of The Day

---

"The business of the poet and the novelist is to show the sorriness underlying the grandest things and the grandeur underlying the sorriest things."

- Thomas Hardy

---

Vanguard Video

---

Today's video features a complete reading of Thomas Hardy's classic novel, Jude the Obscure. Enjoy!

Notes For November 23rd, 2022

---

This Day In Literary History

---

On November 23rd, 1874, Far From The Madding Crowd, the classic novel by the legendary English writer Thomas Hardy, was published in London.

It first appeared in a serialized format, published by Cornhill Magazine, which at the time was the main rival of All The Year Round, the literary magazine founded by Charles Dickens.

Far From The Madding Crowd is not only one of the greatest love stories ever written, it's also a classic tale of rural English life during the Victorian era. It tells a tale of true love complicated and delayed by stubbornness, pride, and circumstance.

Gabriel Oak is a successful sheep farmer nearing thirty years of age who falls in love with Bathsheba Everdene, a proud, vain, determined, and independent woman eight years his junior who has come to live with her aunt.

Bathsheba grows close to Gabriel - she even saves his life - but when he proposes marriage, she refuses, as she values her independence more than his love. She moves away miles out of town.

When Bathsheba and Gabriel are reunited sometime later, things have changed drastically for both of them. Gabriel is ruined when an inexperienced sheepdog runs his flock over the edge of a cliff.

After being forced to sell off all his possessions to settle his debts, Gabriel wanders about looking for work. He happens upon a dangerous fire ravaging a farm and helps to put it out.

When the owner of the farm comes over to thank him, it turns out to be Bathsheba, who inherited her uncle's estate. In need of a capable shepherd, she hires Gabriel, although it makes her uncomfortable.

Bathsheba has another admirer - a lonely, repressed, middle-aged farmer named William Boldwood. She decides to play a joke on him and sends him a valentine with the words "Marry Me" written on it. Boldwood, not realizing that it's just a joke, proposes marriage.

Bathsheba doesn't love him, but toys with the idea of marrying him. Despite his shortcomings, he's also affluent and the most eligible bachelor in town.

Instead of accepting Boldwood's proposal right away, she puts off giving him an answer and plays with his affections. When Gabriel finds out, he chides Bathsheba for her thoughtlessness. She fires him.

Later, when bloat threatens to kill all of her sheep, Bathsheba is finally forced to swallow her pride and beg Gabriel for help. He saves her flock, she hires him back, and they become friends again.

Soon, however, Bathsheba falls for a dashing soldier, Sgt. Francis "Frank" Troy. Gabriel tries to discourage her from marrying him, telling her that she'd be better of with William Boldwood. In love with Troy, Bathsheba elopes with him.

When they return from their honeymoon, Troy is approached by Boldwood, who offers him a huge bribe in exchange for Bathsheba. He refuses, and Boldwood vows revenge.

Unfortunately for Bathsheba, her gallant husband soon shows his true colors - he's a compulsive gambler in love with another woman, whom he was going to marry. Her name was Fanny Robin.

On their wedding day, Fanny accidentally went to the wrong church. Mistakenly believing that she jilted him, a humiliated Troy called off the wedding, not knowing that Fanny was pregnant with his child.

Months later, Troy meets Fanny on the road. A destitute wreck about to give birth, Troy takes pity on her and gives her all the money he has on him. He plans to support her and their child, but she dies in childbirth, along with the baby.

Gabriel tries to conceal all of this from Bathsheba, but she finds out and has the coffin brought to her house. She opens it and sees both mother and child. Troy kisses Fanny's corpse.

Telling Bathsheba, "This woman is more to me, dead as she is, than ever you were, or are, or can be," Troy leaves her. He takes a long walk to the coast, strips off his clothes, and bathes in the ocean. A riptide carries him out to sea and he's presumed dead.

William Boldwood still determines to marry Bathsheba. This time, out of guilt over all the pain she's caused him, (and others) she agrees to marry him in a few years, when she can have her husband declared legally dead. What she doesn't know is that he's still alive.

When Troy learns that Boldwood has forced Bathsheba to marry him, he returns on Christmas Eve to claim her. He finds her at Boldwood's house and she screams in horror when she sees him.

Boldwood, refusing to give her up, shoots Troy and kills him. He attempts suicide and is later sentenced to hang. Boldwood's death sentence is commuted on the grounds of insanity after his friends petition the Home Secretary for mercy.

Through all of her tribulations, Bathsheba came to rely more and more on her oldest and dearest friend, Gabriel Oak. But one day, he gives notice that he's resigning from her employ.

When she presses him for an explanation, Gabriel reluctantly admits that he's quitting to protect her good name, as people are gossiping that he wants to marry her.

Bathsheba finally realizes that he is the only one who ever truly cared about her - the only one who really loved her. When he summons the courage to ask for her hand again, she accepts without hesitation, and they marry quietly.

A huge hit with Victorian readers and critics, Far From the Madding Crowd would become an all-time classic novel, adapted for the stage, screen, radio, and television.

Thomas Hardy would write more classic novels, including Tess of the d'Urbervilles (1891) and Jude the Obscure (1895). He died in 1928 at the age of 87.

---

Quote Of The Day

---

"The business of the poet and the novelist is to show the sorriness underlying the grandest things and the grandeur underlying the sorriest things." - Thomas Hardy

---

Vanguard Video

---

Today's video features a complete reading of Thomas Hardy's classic novel, Far From the Madding Crowd. Enjoy!

Notes For November 1st, 2022

---

This Day In Literary History

---

On November 1st, 1895, Jude the Obscure, the classic novel by the legendary English writer Thomas Hardy, was published in book form. Like most novels of the time, it originally appeared in a serialized format.

The semi-autobiographical novel would cause a huge controversy with its themes of sexuality, marriage, class prejudice, and the destructive influence of religion.

A bleak, haunting drama, Jude the Obscure tells the story of Jude Fawley, a poor, working class youth who dreams of becoming a scholar and studying at the university in Christminister, a fictional city based on Oxford.

Unable to afford a proper primary education, Jude educates himself and soon becomes fluent in Latin and Greek. Unfortunately, his plans for Christminster are derailed when he becomes involved with Arabella Donn, the daughter of a local pig farmer.

Although intelligent, the kindly, naive Jude is no match for the vulgar, manipulative Arabella, who seduces him, then traps him in a hasty marriage to avoid scandal.

The loveless marriage doesn't last long, not because Jude wants out, but because Arabella deserts him. Jude moves to Christminster and supports himself as a mason while he studies alone, hoping to enter university sometime in the future.

He meets Sue Bridehead, a cousin of his. As Victorian women go, Sue is a rarity - she's a free-spirited, idealistic intellectual, a symbol of the waning power of Victorian values.

Although Sue has her flaws, Jude falls madly in love with her. She marries his former teacher, Mr. Philloston, and at first, she's satisfied with the normalcy and respectability of married life.

But she and her husband sleep in separate rooms, as she finds him physically repugnant. Her religious beliefs have led her to view sex as something disgusting and sinful. She's also in love with Jude.

An unhappy Sue finally leaves her husband. She and Jude decide to live together in a platonic relationship. As much as she loves Jude, Sue still can't bring herself to consummate that love.

Knowing their family history of unhappy marriages, they fear that if they marry, being legally bound to each other will destroy their love. The unmarried couple live as man and wife, and have two children together.

A child from Jude's previous marriage is bestowed on him; apparently, Arabella was pregnant when she deserted him. Their child is a boy who possesses his father's intelligence. But unlike Dad, he is intensely serious and morose.

Although Jude, Sue, and the children are a happy family, they are condemned and ostracized by society because Jude and Sue are unmarried. Whenever Jude's employers discover this, he's promptly sacked.

When his landlords find out, the family is evicted; this greatly disturbs Jude's son. One day, the boy murders his half-siblings and hangs himself, leaving behind a note that reads "Done because we are too menny."

The shock of the tragedy causes Sue to miscarry her unborn child. She turns to the Church that had cast her out and becomes convinced that the children's deaths were divine retribution for living in sin with Jude.

When Arabella learns of this, she tells Sue's ex-husband Mr. Philloston, who then proposes remarriage. Sue accepts. Jude is devastated, and the scheming Arabella takes advantage of his vulnerable mental state.

She gets him drunk and manipulates him into marrying her yet again. Later, Jude makes a final visit to Sue one frigid night. Although respectable and without sin in the eyes of society and the Church, Sue is absolutely miserable.

Exposure to the freezing weather causes Jude to get sick and his health begins to deteriorate. After he dies, his wife Arabella feels no sorrow. Instead of mourning Jude's passing, she sets out to snare another husband.

Jude the Obscure originally appeared in a serialized format in European and American literary magazines under the titles The Simpletons and Hearts Insurgent.

The serialized version was considerably different from the novel, as the magazine publishers insisted on a heavily sanitized version of the story.

When it was published in book form, in Thomas Hardy's original, unexpurgated version, Jude the Obscure caused a furor in Victorian England.

Critics trashed it as immoral, with one reviewer calling it Jude the Obscene. William Walsham How, England's Bishop of Wakefield, set the novel alight in a public burning.

Hardy was venomously denounced, accused of attacking the Church and the sanctity of marriage. Today, Jude the Obscure is considered a classic work of 19th century English literature - one of Hardy's finest novels.

It would also be his last. Disgusted by the public's reaction to Jude the Obscure, Hardy gave up writing fiction and devoted the rest of his literary career to writing plays and poetry.

---

Quote Of The Day

---

"The business of the poet and the novelist is to show the sorriness underlying the grandest things and the grandeur underlying the sorriest things." - Thomas Hardy

---

Vanguard Video

---

Today's video features a complete reading of Thomas Hardy's classic novel, Jude the Obscure. Enjoy!

Notes For November 23rd, 2021

---

This Day In Literary History

---

On November 23rd, 1874, Far From The Madding Crowd, the classic novel by the legendary English writer Thomas Hardy, was published in London.

It first appeared in a serialized format, published by Cornhill Magazine, which at the time was the main rival of All The Year Round, the literary magazine founded by Charles Dickens.

Far From The Madding Crowd is not only one of the greatest love stories ever written, it's also a classic tale of rural English life during the Victorian era. It tells a tale of true love complicated and delayed by stubbornness, pride, and circumstance.

Gabriel Oak is a successful sheep farmer nearing thirty years of age who falls in love with Bathsheba Everdene, a proud, vain, determined, and independent woman eight years his junior who has come to live with her aunt.

Bathsheba grows close to Gabriel - she even saves his life - but when he proposes marriage, she refuses, as she values her independence more than his love. She moves away miles out of town.

When Bathsheba and Gabriel are reunited sometime later, things have changed drastically for both of them. Gabriel is ruined when an inexperienced sheepdog runs his flock over the edge of a cliff.

After being forced to sell off all his possessions to settle his debts, Gabriel wanders about looking for work. He happens upon a dangerous fire ravaging a farm and helps to put it out.

When the owner of the farm comes over to thank him, it turns out to be Bathsheba, who inherited her uncle's estate. In need of a capable shepherd, she hires Gabriel, although it makes her uncomfortable.

Bathsheba has another admirer - a lonely, repressed, middle-aged farmer named William Boldwood. She decides to play a joke on him and sends him a valentine with the words "Marry Me" written on it. Boldwood, not realizing that it's just a joke, proposes marriage.

Bathsheba doesn't love him, but toys with the idea of marrying him. Despite his shortcomings, he's also affluent and the most eligible bachelor in town.

Instead of accepting Boldwood's proposal right away, she puts off giving him an answer and plays with his affections. When Gabriel finds out, he chides Bathsheba for her thoughtlessness. She fires him.

Later, when bloat threatens to kill all of her sheep, Bathsheba is finally forced to swallow her pride and beg Gabriel for help. He saves her flock, she hires him back, and they become friends again.

Soon, however, Bathsheba falls for a dashing soldier, Sgt. Francis "Frank" Troy. Gabriel tries to discourage her from marrying him, telling her that she'd be better of with William Boldwood. In love with Troy, Bathsheba elopes with him.

When they return from their honeymoon, Troy is approached by Boldwood, who offers him a huge bribe in exchange for Bathsheba. He refuses, and Boldwood vows revenge.

Unfortunately for Bathsheba, her gallant husband soon shows his true colors - he's a compulsive gambler in love with another woman, whom he was going to marry. Her name was Fanny Robin.

On their wedding day, Fanny accidentally went to the wrong church. Mistakenly believing that she jilted him, a humiliated Troy called off the wedding, not knowing that Fanny was pregnant with his child.

Months later, Troy meets Fanny on the road. A destitute wreck about to give birth, Troy takes pity on her and gives her all the money he has on him. He plans to support her and their child, but she dies in childbirth, along with the baby.

Gabriel tries to conceal all of this from Bathsheba, but she finds out and has the coffin brought to her house. She opens it and sees both mother and child. Troy kisses Fanny's corpse.

Telling Bathsheba, "This woman is more to me, dead as she is, than ever you were, or are, or can be," Troy leaves her. He takes a long walk to the coast, strips off his clothes, and bathes in the ocean. A riptide carries him out to sea and he's presumed dead.

William Boldwood still determines to marry Bathsheba. This time, out of guilt over all the pain she's caused him, (and others) she agrees to marry him in a few years, when she can have her husband declared legally dead. What she doesn't know is that he's still alive.

When Troy learns that Boldwood has forced Bathsheba to marry him, he returns on Christmas Eve to claim her. He finds her at Boldwood's house and she screams in horror when she sees him.

Boldwood, refusing to give her up, shoots Troy and kills him. He attempts suicide and is later sentenced to hang. Boldwood's death sentence is commuted on the grounds of insanity after his friends petition the Home Secretary for mercy.

Through all of her tribulations, Bathsheba came to rely more and more on her oldest and dearest friend, Gabriel Oak. But one day, he gives notice that he's resigning from her employ.

When she presses him for an explanation, Gabriel reluctantly admits that he's quitting to protect her good name, as people are gossiping that he wants to marry her.

Bathsheba finally realizes that he is the only one who ever truly cared about her - the only one who really loved her. When he summons the courage to ask for her hand again, she accepts without hesitation, and they marry quietly.

A huge hit with Victorian readers and critics, Far From the Madding Crowd would become an all-time classic novel, adapted for the stage, screen, radio, and television.

Thomas Hardy would write more classic novels, including Tess of the d'Urbervilles (1891) and Jude the Obscure (1895). He died in 1928 at the age of 87.

---

Quote Of The Day

---

"The business of the poet and the novelist is to show the sorriness underlying the grandest things and the grandeur underlying the sorriest things." - Thomas Hardy

---

Vanguard Video

---

Today's video features a complete reading of Thomas Hardy's classic novel, Far From the Madding Crowd. Enjoy!

Notes For November 1st, 2019

---

This Day In Literary History

---

On November 1st, 1895, Jude the Obscure, the classic novel by the legendary English writer Thomas Hardy, was published in book form. Like most novels of the time, it originally appeared in a serialized format.

The semi-autobiographical novel would cause a huge controversy with its themes of sexuality, marriage, class prejudice, and the destructive influence of religion.

A bleak, haunting drama, Jude the Obscure tells the story of Jude Fawley, a poor, working class youth who dreams of becoming a scholar and studying at the university in Christminister, a fictional city based on Oxford.

Unable to afford a proper primary education, Jude educates himself and soon becomes fluent in Latin and Greek. Unfortunately, his plans for Christminster are derailed when he becomes involved with Arabella Donn, the daughter of a local pig farmer.

Although intelligent, the kindly, naive Jude is no match for the vulgar, manipulative Arabella, who seduces him, then traps him in a hasty marriage to avoid scandal.

The loveless marriage doesn't last long, not because Jude wants out, but because Arabella deserts him. Jude moves to Christminster and supports himself as a mason while he studies alone, hoping to enter university sometime in the future.

He meets Sue Bridehead, a cousin of his. As Victorian women go, Sue is a rarity - she's a free-spirited, idealistic intellectual, a symbol of the waning power of Victorian values.

Although Sue has her flaws, Jude falls madly in love with her. She marries his former teacher, Mr. Philloston, and at first, she's satisfied with the normalcy and respectability of married life.

But she and her husband sleep in separate rooms, as she finds him physically repugnant. Her religious beliefs have led her to view sex as something disgusting and sinful. She's also in love with Jude.

An unhappy Sue finally leaves her husband. She and Jude decide to live together in a platonic relationship. As much as she loves Jude, Sue still can't bring herself to consummate that love.

Knowing their family history of unhappy marriages, they fear that if they marry, being legally bound to each other will destroy their love. The unmarried couple live as man and wife, and have two children together.

A child from Jude's previous marriage is bestowed on him; apparently, Arabella was pregnant when she deserted him. Their child is a boy who possesses his father's intelligence. But unlike Dad, he is intensely serious and morose.

Although Jude, Sue, and the children are a happy family, they are condemned and ostracized by society because Jude and Sue are unmarried. Whenever Jude's employers discover this, he's promptly sacked.

When his landlords find out, the family is evicted; this greatly disturbs Jude's son. One day, the boy murders his half-siblings and hangs himself, leaving behind a note that reads "Done because we are too menny."

The shock of the tragedy causes Sue to miscarry her unborn child. She turns to the Church that had cast her out and becomes convinced that the children's deaths were divine retribution for living in sin with Jude.

When Arabella learns of this, she tells Sue's ex-husband Mr. Philloston, who then proposes remarriage. Sue accepts. Jude is devastated, and the scheming Arabella takes advantage of his vulnerable mental state.

She gets him drunk and manipulates him into marrying her yet again. Later, Jude makes a final visit to Sue one frigid night. Although respectable and without sin in the eyes of society and the Church, Sue is absolutely miserable.

Exposure to the freezing weather causes Jude to get sick and his health begins to deteriorate. After he dies, his wife Arabella feels no sorrow. Instead of mourning Jude's passing, she sets out to snare another husband.

Jude the Obscure originally appeared in a serialized format in European and American literary magazines under the titles The Simpletons and Hearts Insurgent.

The serialized version was considerably different from the novel, as the magazine publishers insisted on a heavily sanitized version of the story.

When it was published in book form, in Thomas Hardy's original, unexpurgated version, Jude the Obscure caused a furor in Victorian England.

Critics trashed it as immoral, with one reviewer calling it Jude the Obscene. William Walsham How, England's Bishop of Wakefield, set the novel alight in a public burning.

Hardy was venomously denounced, accused of attacking the Church and the sanctity of marriage. Today, Jude the Obscure is considered a classic work of 19th century English literature - one of Hardy's finest novels.

It would also be his last. Disgusted by the public's reaction to Jude the Obscure, Hardy gave up writing fiction and devoted the rest of his literary career to writing plays and poetry.

---

Quote Of The Day

---

"The business of the poet and the novelist is to show the sorriness underlying the grandest things and the grandeur underlying the sorriest things." - Thomas Hardy

---

Vanguard Video

---

Today's video features a complete reading of Thomas Hardy's classic novel, Jude the Obscure. Enjoy!

Notes For November 23rd, 2018

---

This Day In Literary History

---

On November 23rd, 1874, Far From The Madding Crowd, the classic novel by the legendary English writer Thomas Hardy, was published in London.

It first appeared in a serialized format, published by Cornhill Magazine, which at the time was the main rival of All The Year Round, the literary magazine founded by Charles Dickens.

Far From The Madding Crowd is not only one of the greatest love stories ever written, it's also a classic tale of rural English life during the Victorian era. It tells a tale of true love complicated and delayed by stubbornness, pride, and circumstance.

Gabriel Oak is a successful sheep farmer nearing thirty years of age who falls in love with Bathsheba Everdene, a proud, vain, determined, and independent woman eight years his junior who has come to live with her aunt.

Bathsheba grows close to Gabriel - she even saves his life - but when he proposes marriage, she refuses, as she values her independence more than his love. She moves away miles out of town.

When Bathsheba and Gabriel are reunited sometime later, things have changed drastically for both of them. Gabriel is ruined when an inexperienced sheepdog runs his flock over the edge of a cliff.

After being forced to sell off all his possessions to settle his debts, Gabriel wanders about looking for work. He happens upon a dangerous fire ravaging a farm and helps to put it out.

When the owner of the farm comes over to thank him, it turns out to be Bathsheba, who inherited her uncle's estate. In need of a capable shepherd, she hires Gabriel, although it makes her uncomfortable.

Bathsheba has another admirer - a lonely, repressed, middle-aged farmer named William Boldwood. She decides to play a joke on him and sends him a valentine with the words "Marry Me" written on it. Boldwood, not realizing that it's just a joke, proposes marriage.

Bathsheba doesn't love him, but toys with the idea of marrying him. Despite his shortcomings, he's also affluent and the most eligible bachelor in town.

Instead of accepting Boldwood's proposal right away, she puts off giving him an answer and plays with his affections. When Gabriel finds out, he chides Bathsheba for her thoughtlessness. She fires him.

Later, when bloat threatens to kill all of her sheep, Bathsheba is finally forced to swallow her pride and beg Gabriel for help. He saves her flock, she hires him back, and they become friends again.

Soon, however, Bathsheba falls for a dashing soldier, Sgt. Francis "Frank" Troy. Gabriel tries to discourage her from marrying him, telling her that she'd be better of with William Boldwood. In love with Troy, Bathsheba elopes with him.

When they return from their honeymoon, Troy is approached by Boldwood, who offers him a huge bribe in exchange for Bathsheba. He refuses, and Boldwood vows revenge.

Unfortunately for Bathsheba, her gallant husband soon shows his true colors - he's a compulsive gambler in love with another woman, whom he was going to marry. Her name was Fanny Robin.

On their wedding day, Fanny accidentally went to the wrong church. Mistakenly believing that she jilted him, a humiliated Troy called off the wedding, not knowing that Fanny was pregnant with his child.

Months later, Troy meets Fanny on the road. A destitute wreck about to give birth, Troy takes pity on her and gives her all the money he has on him. He plans to support her and their child, but she dies in childbirth, along with the baby.

Gabriel tries to conceal all of this from Bathsheba, but she finds out and has the coffin brought to her house. She opens it and sees both mother and child. Troy kisses Fanny's corpse.

Telling Bathsheba, "This woman is more to me, dead as she is, than ever you were, or are, or can be," Troy leaves her. He takes a long walk to the coast, strips off his clothes, and bathes in the ocean. A riptide carries him out to sea and he's presumed dead.

William Boldwood still determines to marry Bathsheba. This time, out of guilt over all the pain she's caused him, (and others) she agrees to marry him in a few years, when she can have her husband declared legally dead. What she doesn't know is that he's still alive.

When Troy learns that Boldwood has forced Bathsheba to marry him, he returns on Christmas Eve to claim her. He finds her at Boldwood's house and she screams in horror when she sees him.

Boldwood, refusing to give her up, shoots Troy and kills him. He attempts suicide and is later sentenced to hang. Boldwood's death sentence is commuted on the grounds of insanity after his friends petition the Home Secretary for mercy.

Through all of her tribulations, Bathsheba came to rely more and more on her oldest and dearest friend, Gabriel Oak. But one day, he gives notice that he's resigning from her employ.

When she presses him for an explanation, Gabriel reluctantly admits that he's quitting to protect her good name, as people are gossiping that he wants to marry her.

Bathsheba finally realizes that he is the only one who ever truly cared about her - the only one who really loved her. When he summons the courage to ask for her hand again, she accepts without hesitation, and they quietly marry.

A huge hit with Victorian readers and critics, Far From the Madding Crowd would become an all-time classic novel, adapted for the stage, screen, radio, and television.

Thomas Hardy would write more classic novels, including Tess of the d'Urbervilles (1891) and Jude the Obscure (1895). He died in 1928 at the age of 87.

---

Quote Of The Day

---

"The business of the poet and the novelist is to show the sorriness underlying the grandest things and the grandeur underlying the sorriest things." - Thomas Hardy

---

Vanguard Video

---

Today's video features a complete reading of Thomas Hardy's classic novel, Far From the Madding Crowd. Enjoy!

Notes For November 1st, 2018

---

This Day In Literary History

---

On November 1st, 1895, Jude the Obscure, the classic novel by the legendary English writer Thomas Hardy, was published in book form. Like most novels of the time, it originally appeared in a serialized format.

The semi-autobiographical novel would cause a huge controversy with its themes of sexuality, marriage, class prejudice, and the destructive influence of religion.

A bleak, haunting drama, Jude the Obscure tells the story of Jude Fawley, a poor, working class youth who dreams of becoming a scholar and studying at the university in Christminister, a fictional city based on Oxford.

Unable to afford a proper primary education, Jude educates himself and soon becomes fluent in Latin and Greek. Unfortunately, his plans for Christminster are derailed when he becomes involved with Arabella Donn, the daughter of a local pig farmer.

Although intelligent, the kindly, naive Jude is no match for the vulgar, manipulative Arabella, who seduces him, then traps him in a hasty marriage to avoid scandal.

The loveless marriage doesn't last long, not because Jude wants out, but because Arabella deserts him. Jude moves to Christminster and supports himself as a mason while he studies alone, hoping to enter university sometime in the future.

He meets Sue Bridehead, a cousin of his. As Victorian women go, Sue is a rarity - she's a free-spirited, idealistic intellectual, a symbol of the waning power of Victorian values.

Although Sue has her flaws, Jude falls madly in love with her. She marries his former teacher, Mr. Philloston, and at first, she's satisfied with the normalcy and respectability of married life.

But she and her husband sleep in separate rooms, as she finds him physically repugnant. Her religious beliefs have led her to view sex as something disgusting and sinful. She's also in love with Jude.

An unhappy Sue finally leaves her husband. She and Jude decide to live together in a platonic relationship. As much as she loves Jude, Sue still can't bring herself to consummate that love.

Knowing their family history of unhappy marriages, they fear that if they marry, being legally bound to each other will destroy their love. The unmarried couple live as man and wife, and have two children together.

A child from Jude's previous marriage is bestowed on him; apparently, Arabella was pregnant when she deserted him. Their child is a boy who possesses his father's intelligence. But unlike Dad, he is intensely serious and morose.

Although Jude, Sue, and the children are a happy family, they are condemned and ostracized by society because Jude and Sue are unmarried. Whenever Jude's employers discover this, he's promptly sacked.

When his landlords find out, the family is evicted; this greatly disturbs Jude's son. One day, the boy murders his half-siblings and hangs himself, leaving behind a note that reads "Done because we are too menny."

The shock of the tragedy causes Sue to miscarry her unborn child. She turns to the Church that had cast her out and becomes convinced that the children's deaths were divine retribution for living in sin with Jude.

When Arabella learns of this, she tells Sue's ex-husband Mr. Philloston, who then proposes remarriage. Sue accepts. Jude is devastated, and the scheming Arabella takes advantage of his vulnerable mental state.

She gets him drunk and manipulates him into marrying her yet again. Later, Jude makes a final visit to Sue one frigid night. Although respectable and without sin in the eyes of society and the Church, Sue is absolutely miserable.

Exposure to the freezing weather causes Jude to get sick and his health begins to deteriorate. After he dies, his wife Arabella feels no sorrow. Instead of mourning Jude's passing, she sets out to snare another husband.

Jude the Obscure originally appeared in a serialized format in European and American literary magazines under the titles The Simpletons and Hearts Insurgent.

The serialized version was considerably different from the novel, as the magazine publishers insisted on a heavily sanitized version of the story.

When it was published in book form, in Thomas Hardy's original, unexpurgated version, Jude the Obscure caused a furor in Victorian England.

Critics trashed it as immoral, with one reviewer calling it Jude the Obscene. William Walsham How, England's Bishop of Wakefield, set the novel alight in a public burning.

Hardy was venomously denounced, accused of attacking the Church and the sanctity of marriage. Today, Jude the Obscure is considered a classic work of 19th century English literature - one of Hardy's finest novels.

It would also be his last. Disgusted by the public's reaction to Jude the Obscure, Hardy gave up writing fiction and devoted the rest of his literary career to writing plays and poetry.

---

Quote Of The Day

---

"The business of the poet and the novelist is to show the sorriness underlying the grandest things and the grandeur underlying the sorriest things." - Thomas Hardy

---

Vanguard Video

---

Today's video features a complete reading of Thomas Hardy's classic novel, Jude the Obscure. Enjoy!

Notes For November 23rd, 2017

---

This Day In Literary History

---

On November 23rd, 1874, Far From The Madding Crowd, the classic novel by the legendary English writer Thomas Hardy, was published in London.

It first appeared in a serialized format, published by Cornhill Magazine, which at the time was the main rival of All The Year Round, the literary magazine founded by Charles Dickens.

Far From The Madding Crowd is not only one of the greatest love stories ever written, it's also a classic tale of rural English life during the Victorian era. It tells a tale of true love complicated and delayed by stubbornness, pride, and circumstance.

Gabriel Oak is a successful sheep farmer nearing thirty years of age who falls in love with Bathsheba Everdene, a proud, vain, determined, and independent woman eight years his junior who has come to live with her aunt.

Bathsheba grows close to Gabriel - she even saves his life - but when he proposes marriage, she refuses, as she values her independence more than his love. She moves away miles out of town.

When Bathsheba and Gabriel are reunited sometime later, things have changed drastically for both of them. Gabriel is ruined when an inexperienced sheepdog runs his flock over the edge of a cliff.

After being forced to sell off all his possessions to settle his debts, Gabriel wanders about looking for work. He happens upon a dangerous fire ravaging a farm and helps to put it out.

When the owner of the farm comes over to thank him, it turns out to be Bathsheba, who inherited her uncle's estate. In need of a capable shepherd, she hires Gabriel, although it makes her uncomfortable.

Bathsheba has another admirer - a lonely, repressed, middle-aged farmer named William Boldwood. She decides to play a joke on him and sends him a valentine with the words "Marry Me" written on it. Boldwood, not realizing that it's just a joke, proposes marriage.

Bathsheba doesn't love him, but toys with the idea of marrying him. Despite his shortcomings, he's also affluent and the most eligible bachelor in town.

Instead of accepting Boldwood's proposal right away, she puts off giving him an answer and plays with his affections. When Gabriel finds out, he chides Bathsheba for her thoughtlessness. She fires him.

Later, when bloat threatens to kill all of her sheep, Bathsheba is finally forced to swallow her pride and beg Gabriel for help. He saves her flock, she hires him back, and they become friends again.

Soon, however, Bathsheba falls for a dashing soldier, Sgt. Francis "Frank" Troy. Gabriel tries to discourage her from marrying him, telling her that she'd be better of with William Boldwood. In love with Troy, Bathsheba elopes with him.

When they return from their honeymoon, Troy is approached by Boldwood, who offers him a huge bribe in exchange for Bathsheba. He refuses, and Boldwood vows revenge.

Unfortunately for Bathsheba, her gallant husband soon shows his true colors - he's a compulsive gambler in love with another woman, whom he was going to marry. Her name was Fanny Robin.

On their wedding day, Fanny accidentally went to the wrong church. Mistakenly believing that she jilted him, a humiliated Troy called off the wedding, not knowing that Fanny was pregnant with his child.

Months later, Troy meets Fanny on the road. A destitute wreck about to give birth, Troy takes pity on her and gives her all the money he has on him. He plans to support her and their child, but she dies in childbirth, along with the baby.

Gabriel tries to conceal all of this from Bathsheba, but she finds out and has the coffin brought to her house. She opens it and sees both mother and child. Troy kisses Fanny's corpse.

Telling Bathsheba, "This woman is more to me, dead as she is, than ever you were, or are, or can be," Troy leaves her. He takes a long walk to the coast, strips off his clothes, and bathes in the ocean. A riptide carries him out to sea and he's presumed dead.

William Boldwood still determines to marry Bathsheba. This time, out of guilt over all the pain she's caused him, (and others) she agrees to marry him in a few years, when she can have her husband declared legally dead. What she doesn't know is that he's still alive.

When Troy learns that Boldwood has forced Bathsheba to marry him, he returns on Christmas Eve to claim her. He finds her at Boldwood's house and she screams in horror when she sees him.

Boldwood, refusing to give her up, shoots Troy and kills him. He attempts suicide and is later sentenced to hang. Boldwood's death sentence is commuted on the grounds of insanity after his friends petition the Home Secretary for mercy.

Through all of her tribulations, Bathsheba came to rely more and more on her oldest and dearest friend, Gabriel Oak. But one day, he gives notice that he's resigning from her employ.

When she presses him for an explanation, Gabriel reluctantly admits that he's quitting to protect her good name, as people are gossiping that he wants to marry her.

Bathsheba finally realizes that he is the only one who ever truly cared about her - the only one who really loved her. When he summons the courage to ask for her hand again, she accepts without hesitation, and they quietly marry.

A huge hit with Victorian readers and critics, Far From the Madding Crowd would become an all-time classic novel, adapted for the stage, screen, radio, and television.

Thomas Hardy would write more classic novels, including Tess of the d'Urbervilles (1891) and Jude the Obscure (1895). He died in 1928 at the age of 87.

---

Quote Of The Day

---

"The business of the poet and the novelist is to show the sorriness underlying the grandest things and the grandeur underlying the sorriest things." - Thomas Hardy

---

Vanguard Video

---

Today's video features a complete reading of Thomas Hardy's classic novel, Far From the Madding Crowd. Enjoy!

Notes For November 1st, 2017

---

This Day In Literary History

---

On November 1st, 1895, Jude the Obscure, the classic novel by the legendary English writer Thomas Hardy, was published in book form. Like most novels of the time, it originally appeared in a serialized format.

The semi-autobiographical novel would cause a huge controversy with its themes of sexuality, marriage, class prejudice, and the destructive influence of religion.

A bleak, haunting drama, Jude the Obscure tells the story of Jude Fawley, a poor, working class youth who dreams of becoming a scholar and studying at the university in Christminister, a fictional city based on Oxford.

Unable to afford a proper primary education, Jude educates himself and soon becomes fluent in Latin and Greek. Unfortunately, his plans for Christminster are derailed when he becomes involved with Arabella Donn, the daughter of a local pig farmer.

Although intelligent, the kindly, naive Jude is no match for the vulgar, manipulative Arabella, who seduces him, then traps him in a hasty marriage to avoid scandal.

The loveless marriage doesn't last long, not because Jude wants out, but because Arabella deserts him. Jude moves to Christminster and supports himself as a mason while he studies alone, hoping to enter university sometime in the future.

He meets Sue Bridehead, a cousin of his. As Victorian women go, Sue is a rarity - she's a free-spirited, idealistic intellectual, a symbol of the waning power of Victorian values.

Although Sue has her flaws, Jude falls madly in love with her. She marries his former teacher, Mr. Philloston, and at first, she's satisfied with the normalcy and respectability of married life.

But she and her husband sleep in separate rooms, as she finds him physically repugnant. Her religious beliefs have led her to view sex as something disgusting and sinful. She's also in love with Jude.

An unhappy Sue finally leaves her husband. She and Jude decide to live together in a platonic relationship. As much as she loves Jude, Sue still can't bring herself to consummate that love.

Knowing their family history of unhappy marriages, they fear that if they marry, being legally bound to each other will destroy their love. The unmarried couple live as man and wife, and have two children together.

A child from Jude's previous marriage is bestowed on him; apparently, Arabella was pregnant when she deserted him. Their child is a boy who possesses his father's intelligence. But unlike Dad, he is intensely serious and morose.

Although Jude, Sue, and the children are a happy family, they are condemned and ostracized by society because Jude and Sue are unmarried. Whenever Jude's employers discover this, he's promptly sacked.

When his landlords find out, the family is evicted; this greatly disturbs Jude's son. One day, the boy murders his half-siblings and hangs himself, leaving behind a note that reads "Done because we are too menny."

The shock of the tragedy causes Sue to miscarry her unborn child. She turns to the Church that had cast her out and becomes convinced that the children's deaths were divine retribution for living in sin with Jude.

When Arabella learns of this, she tells Sue's ex-husband Mr. Philloston, who then proposes remarriage. Sue accepts. Jude is devastated, and the scheming Arabella takes advantage of his vulnerable mental state.

She gets him drunk and manipulates him into marrying her yet again. Later, Jude makes a final visit to Sue one frigid night. Although respectable and without sin in the eyes of society and the Church, Sue is absolutely miserable.

Exposure to the freezing weather causes Jude to get sick and his health begins to deteriorate. After he dies, his wife Arabella feels no sorrow. Instead of mourning Jude's passing, she sets out to snare another husband.

Jude the Obscure originally appeared in a serialized format in European and American literary magazines under the titles The Simpletons and Hearts Insurgent.

The serialized version was considerably different from the novel, as the magazine publishers insisted on a heavily sanitized version of the story.

When it was published in book form, in Thomas Hardy's original, unexpurgated version, Jude the Obscure caused a furor in Victorian England.

Critics trashed it as immoral, with one reviewer calling it Jude the Obscene. William Walsham How, England's Bishop of Wakefield, set the novel alight in a public burning.

Hardy was venomously denounced, accused of attacking the Church and the sanctity of marriage. Today, Jude the Obscure is considered a classic work of 19th century English literature - one of Hardy's finest novels.

It would also be his last. Disgusted by the public's reaction to Jude the Obscure, Hardy gave up writing fiction and devoted the rest of his literary career to writing plays and poetry.

---

Quote Of The Day

---

"The business of the poet and the novelist is to show the sorriness underlying the grandest things and the grandeur underlying the sorriest things." - Thomas Hardy

---

Vanguard Video

---

Today's video features a complete reading of Thomas Hardy's classic novel, Jude the Obscure. Enjoy!

Notes For November 23rd, 2016

---

This Day In Literary History

---

On November 23rd, 1874, Far From The Madding Crowd, the classic novel by the legendary English writer Thomas Hardy, was published in London.

It first appeared in a serialized format, published by Cornhill Magazine, which at the time was the main rival of All The Year Round, the literary magazine founded by Charles Dickens.

Far From The Madding Crowd is not only one of the greatest love stories ever written, it's also a classic tale of rural English life during the Victorian era. It tells a tale of true love complicated and delayed by stubbornness, pride, and circumstance.

Gabriel Oak is a successful sheep farmer nearing thirty years of age who falls in love with Bathsheba Everdene, a proud, vain, determined, and independent woman eight years his junior who has come to live with her aunt.

Bathsheba grows close to Gabriel - she even saves his life - but when he proposes marriage, she refuses, as she values her independence more than his love. She moves away miles out of town.

When Bathsheba and Gabriel are reunited sometime later, things have changed drastically for both of them. Gabriel is ruined when an inexperienced sheepdog runs his flock over the edge of a cliff.

After being forced to sell off all his possessions to settle his debts, Gabriel wanders about looking for work. He happens upon a dangerous fire ravaging a farm and helps to put it out.

When the owner of the farm comes over to thank him, it turns out to be Bathsheba, who inherited her uncle's estate. In need of a capable shepherd, she hires Gabriel, although it makes her uncomfortable.

Bathsheba has another admirer - a lonely, repressed, middle-aged farmer named William Boldwood. She decides to play a joke on him and sends him a valentine with the words "Marry Me" written on it. Boldwood, not realizing that it's just a joke, proposes marriage.

Bathsheba doesn't love him, but toys with the idea of marrying him. Despite his shortcomings, he's also affluent and the most eligible bachelor in town.

Instead of accepting Boldwood's proposal right away, she puts off giving him an answer and plays with his affections. When Gabriel finds out, he chides Bathsheba for her thoughtlessness. She fires him.

Later, when bloat threatens to kill all of her sheep, Bathsheba is finally forced to swallow her pride and beg Gabriel for help. He saves her flock, she hires him back, and they become friends again.

Soon, however, Bathsheba falls for a dashing soldier, Sgt. Francis "Frank" Troy. Gabriel tries to discourage her from marrying him, telling her that she'd be better of with William Boldwood. In love with Troy, Bathsheba elopes with him.

When they return from their honeymoon, Troy is approached by Boldwood, who offers him a huge bribe in exchange for Bathsheba. He refuses, and Boldwood vows revenge.

Unfortunately for Bathsheba, her gallant husband soon shows his true colors - he's a compulsive gambler in love with another woman, whom he was going to marry. Her name was Fanny Robin.

On their wedding day, Fanny accidentally went to the wrong church. Mistakenly believing that she jilted him, a humiliated Troy called off the wedding, not knowing that Fanny was pregnant with his child.

Months later, Troy meets Fanny on the road. A destitute wreck about to give birth, Troy takes pity on her and gives her all the money he has on him. He plans to support her and their child, but she dies in childbirth, along with the baby.

Gabriel tries to conceal all of this from Bathsheba, but she finds out and has the coffin brought to her house. She opens it and sees both mother and child. Troy kisses Fanny's corpse.

Telling Bathsheba, "This woman is more to me, dead as she is, than ever you were, or are, or can be," Troy leaves her. He takes a long walk to the coast, strips off his clothes, and bathes in the ocean. A riptide carries him out to sea and he's presumed dead.

William Boldwood still determines to marry Bathsheba. This time, out of guilt over all the pain she's caused him, (and others) she agrees to marry him in a few years, when she can have her husband declared legally dead. What she doesn't know is that he's still alive.

When Troy learns that Boldwood has forced Bathsheba to marry him, he returns on Christmas Eve to claim her. He finds her at Boldwood's house and she screams in horror when she sees him.

Boldwood, refusing to give her up, shoots Troy and kills him. He attempts suicide and is later sentenced to hang. Boldwood's death sentence is commuted on the grounds of insanity after his friends petition the Home Secretary for mercy.

Through all of her tribulations, Bathsheba came to rely more and more on her oldest and dearest friend, Gabriel Oak. But one day, he gives notice that he's resigning from her employ.

When she presses him for an explanation, Gabriel reluctantly admits that he's quitting to protect her good name, as people are gossiping that he wants to marry her.

Bathsheba finally realizes that he is the only one who ever truly cared about her - the only one who really loved her. When he summons the courage to ask for her hand again, she accepts without hesitation, and they quietly marry.

A huge hit with Victorian readers and critics, Far From the Madding Crowd would become an all-time classic novel, adapted for the stage, screen, radio, and television.

Thomas Hardy would write more classic novels, including Tess of the d'Urbervilles (1891) and Jude the Obscure (1895). He died in 1928 at the age of 87.

---

Quote Of The Day

---

"The business of the poet and the novelist is to show the sorriness underlying the grandest things and the grandeur underlying the sorriest things." - Thomas Hardy

---

Vanguard Video

---

Today's video features a complete reading of Thomas Hardy's classic novel, Far From the Madding Crowd. Enjoy!

Notes For November 1st, 2016

---

This Day In Literary History

---

On November 1st, 1895, Jude the Obscure, the classic novel by the legendary English writer Thomas Hardy, was published in book form. Like most novels of the time, it originally appeared in a serialized format.

The semi-autobiographical novel would cause a huge controversy with its themes of sexuality, marriage, class prejudice, and the destructive influence of religion.

A bleak, haunting drama, Jude the Obscure tells the story of Jude Fawley, a poor, working class youth who dreams of becoming a scholar and studying at the university in Christminister, a fictional city based on Oxford.

Unable to afford a proper primary education, Jude educates himself and soon becomes fluent in Latin and Greek. Unfortunately, his plans for Christminster are derailed when he becomes involved with Arabella Donn, the daughter of a local pig farmer.

Although intelligent, the kindly, naive Jude is no match for the vulgar, manipulative Arabella, who seduces him, then traps him in a hasty marriage to avoid scandal.

The loveless marriage doesn't last long, not because Jude wants out, but because Arabella deserts him. Jude moves to Christminster and supports himself as a mason while he studies alone, hoping to enter university sometime in the future.

He meets Sue Bridehead, a cousin of his. As Victorian women go, Sue is a rarity - she's a free-spirited, idealistic intellectual, a symbol of the waning power of Victorian values.

Although Sue has her flaws, Jude falls madly in love with her. She marries his former teacher, Mr. Philloston, and at first, she's satisfied with the normalcy and respectability of married life.

But she and her husband sleep in separate rooms, as she finds him physically repugnant. Her religious beliefs have led her to view sex as something disgusting and sinful. She's also in love with Jude.

An unhappy Sue finally leaves her husband. She and Jude decide to live together in a platonic relationship. As much as she loves Jude, Sue still can't bring herself to consummate that love.

Knowing their family history of unhappy marriages, they fear that if they marry, being legally bound to each other will destroy their love. The unmarried couple live as man and wife, and have two children together.

A child from Jude's previous marriage is bestowed on him; apparently, Arabella was pregnant when she deserted him. Their child is a boy who possesses his father's intelligence. But unlike Dad, he is intensely serious and morose.

Although Jude, Sue, and the children are a happy family, they are condemned and ostracized by society because Jude and Sue are unmarried. Whenever Jude's employers discover this, he's promptly sacked.

When his landlords find out, the family is evicted; this greatly disturbs Jude's son. One day, the boy murders his half-siblings and hangs himself, leaving behind a note that reads "Done because we are too menny."

The shock of the tragedy causes Sue to miscarry her unborn child. She turns to the Church that had cast her out and becomes convinced that the children's deaths were divine retribution for living in sin with Jude.

When Arabella learns of this, she tells Sue's ex-husband Mr. Philloston, who then proposes remarriage. Sue accepts. Jude is devastated, and the scheming Arabella takes advantage of his vulnerable mental state.

She gets him drunk and manipulates him into marrying her yet again. Later, Jude makes a final visit to Sue one frigid night. Although respectable and without sin in the eyes of society and the Church, Sue is absolutely miserable.

Exposure to the freezing weather causes Jude to get sick and his health begins to deteriorate. After he dies, his wife Arabella feels no sorrow. Instead of mourning Jude's passing, she sets out to snare another husband.

Jude the Obscure originally appeared in a serialized format in European and American literary magazines under the titles The Simpletons and Hearts Insurgent.

The serialized version was considerably different from the novel, as the magazine publishers insisted on a heavily sanitized version of the story.

When it was published in book form, in Thomas Hardy's original, unexpurgated version, Jude the Obscure caused a furor in Victorian England.

Critics trashed it as immoral, with one reviewer calling it Jude the Obscene. William Walsham How, England's Bishop of Wakefield, set the novel alight in a public burning.

Hardy was venomously denounced, accused of attacking the Church and the sanctity of marriage. Today, Jude the Obscure is considered a classic work of 19th century English literature - one of Hardy's finest novels.

It would also be his last. Disgusted by the public's reaction to Jude the Obscure, Hardy gave up writing fiction and devoted the rest of his literary career to writing plays and poetry.

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Quote Of The Day

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"The business of the poet and the novelist is to show the sorriness underlying the grandest things and the grandeur underlying the sorriest things." - Thomas Hardy

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Vanguard Video

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Today's video features a complete reading of Thomas Hardy's classic novel, Jude the Obscure. Enjoy!

Notes For November 1st, 2013

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This Day In Writing History

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On November 1st, 1895, Jude the Obscure, the classic novel by the legendary English writer Thomas Hardy, was published in book form.

The semi-autobiographical novel would cause a huge controversy with its themes of sexuality, marriage, class prejudice, and the destructive influence of religion.

A bleak, haunting drama, Jude the Obscure tells the story of Jude Fawley, a poor, working class youth who dreams of becoming a scholar and studying at the university in Christminister, a fictional city based on Oxford.

Unable to afford a proper primary education, Jude educates himself and soon becomes fluent in Latin and Greek. Unfortunately, his plans for Christminster are derailed when he becomes involved with Arabella Donn, the daughter of a local pig farmer.

Although intelligent, the kindly, naive Jude is no match for the vulgar, manipulative Arabella, who seduces him, then traps him in a hasty marriage to avoid scandal.

The loveless marriage doesn't last long, not because Jude wants out, but because Arabella deserts him. Jude moves to Christminster and supports himself as a mason while he studies alone, hoping to enter university sometime in the future.

He meets Sue Bridehead, a cousin of his. As Victorian women go, Sue is a rarity - she's a free-spirited, idealistic intellectual, a symbol of the waning power of Victorian values.

Although Sue has her flaws, Jude falls madly in love with her. She marries his former teacher, Mr. Philloston, and at first, she's satisfied with the normalcy and respectability of married life.

But she and her husband sleep in separate rooms, as she finds him physically repugnant. Her religious beliefs have led her to view sex as something disgusting and sinful. She's also in love with Jude.

An unhappy Sue finally leaves her husband. She and Jude decide to live together in a platonic relationship. As much as she loves Jude, Sue still can't bring herself to consummate that love.

Knowing their family history of unhappy marriages, they fear that if they marry, being legally bound to each other will destroy their love. The unmarried couple live as man and wife, and have two children together.

A child from Jude's previous marriage is bestowed on him; apparently, Arabella was pregnant when she deserted him. Their child is a boy who possesses his father's intelligence. But unlike Dad, he is intensely serious and morose.

Although Jude, Sue, and the children are a happy family, they are condemned and ostracized by society because Jude and Sue are unmarried. Whenever Jude's employers discover this, he's promptly sacked.

When his landlords find out, the family is evicted; this greatly disturbs Jude's son. One day, the boy murders his half-siblings and hangs himself, leaving behind a note that reads "Done because we are too menny."

The shock of the tragedy causes Sue to miscarry her unborn child. She turns to the Church that had cast her out and becomes convinced that the children's deaths were divine retribution for living in sin with Jude.

When Arabella learns of this, she tells Sue's ex-husband Mr. Philloston, who then proposes remarriage. Sue accepts. Jude is devastated, and the scheming Arabella takes advantage of his vulnerable mental state.

She gets him drunk and manipulates him into marrying her yet again. Later, Jude makes a final visit to Sue one frigid night. Although respectable and without sin in the eyes of society and the Church, Sue is absolutely miserable.

Exposure to the freezing weather causes Jude to get sick and his health begins to deteriorate. After he dies, his wife Arabella feels no sorrow. Instead of mourning Jude's passing, she sets out to snare another husband.

Jude the Obscure originally appeared in a serialized format in European and American literary magazines under the titles The Simpletons and Hearts Insurgent.

The serialized version was considerably different from the novel, as the magazine publishers insisted on a heavily sanitized version of the story.

When it was published in book form, in Thomas Hardy's original, unexpurgated version, Jude the Obscure caused a furor in Victorian England.

Critics trashed it as immoral, with one reviewer calling it Jude the Obscene. William Walsham How, England's Bishop of Wakefield, set the novel alight in a public burning.

Hardy was venomously denounced, accused of attacking the Church and the sanctity of marriage. Today, Jude the Obscure is considered a classic work of 19th century English literature - one of Hardy's finest novels.

It would also be his last. Disgusted by the public's reaction to Jude the Obscure, Hardy gave up writing fiction and devoted the rest of his literary career to writing plays and poetry.

---

Quote Of The Day

---

"The business of the poet and the novelist is to show the sorriness underlying the grandest things and the grandeur underlying the sorriest things." - Thomas Hardy

---

Vanguard Video

---

Today's video features a reading from Thomas Hardy's classic novel, Jude the Obscure. Enjoy!

Notes For November 23rd, 2012

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This Day In Writing History

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On November 23rd, 1874, Far From The Madding Crowd, the classic novel by the legendary English writer Thomas Hardy, was published in London.

It first appeared in a serialized format, published by Cornhill Magazine, which at the time was the main rival of All The Year Round, the literary magazine founded by Charles Dickens.

Far From The Madding Crowd is not only one of the greatest love stories ever written, it's also a classic tale of rural English life during the Victorian era. It tells a tale of true love complicated and delayed by stubbornness, pride, and circumstance.

Gabriel Oak is a successful sheep farmer nearing thirty years of age who falls in love with Bathsheba Everdene, a proud, vain, determined, and independent woman eight years his junior who has come to live with her aunt.

Bathsheba grows close to Gabriel - she even saves his life - but when he proposes marriage, she refuses, as she values her independence more than his love. She moves away miles out of town.

When Bathsheba and Gabriel are reunited sometime later, things have changed drastically for both of them. Gabriel is ruined when an inexperienced sheepdog runs his flock over the edge of a cliff.

After being forced to sell off all his possessions to settle his debts, Gabriel wanders about looking for work. He happens upon a dangerous fire ravaging a farm and helps to put it out.

When the owner of the farm comes over to thank him, it turns out to be Bathsheba, who inherited her uncle's estate. In need of a capable shepherd, she hires Gabriel, although it makes her uncomfortable.

Bathsheba has another admirer - a lonely, repressed, middle-aged farmer named William Boldwood. She decides to play a joke on him and sends him a valentine with the words "Marry Me" written on it. Boldwood, not realizing that it's just a joke, proposes marriage.

Bathsheba doesn't love him, but toys with the idea of marrying him. Despite his shortcomings, he's also affluent and the most eligible bachelor in town.

Instead of accepting Boldwood's proposal right away, she puts off giving him an answer and plays with his affections. When Gabriel finds out, he chides Bathsheba for her thoughtlessness. She fires him.

Later, when bloat threatens to kill all of her sheep, Bathsheba is finally forced to swallow her pride and beg Gabriel for help. He saves her flock, she hires him back, and they become friends again.

Soon, however, Bathsheba falls for a dashing soldier, Sgt. Francis "Frank" Troy. Gabriel tries to discourage her from marrying him, telling her that she'd be better of with William Boldwood. In love with Troy, Bathsheba elopes with him.

When they return from their honeymoon, Troy is approached by Boldwood, who offers him a huge bribe in exchange for Bathsheba. He refuses, and Boldwood vows revenge.

Unfortunately for Bathsheba, her gallant husband soon shows his true colors - he's a compulsive gambler in love with another woman, whom he was going to marry. Her name was Fanny Robin.

On their wedding day, Fanny accidentally went to the wrong church. Mistakenly believing that she jilted him, a humiliated Troy called off the wedding, not knowing that Fanny was pregnant with his child.

Months later, Troy meets Fanny on the road. A destitute wreck about to give birth, Troy takes pity on her and gives her all the money he has on him. He plans to support her and their child, but she dies in childbirth, along with the baby.

Gabriel tries to conceal all of this from Bathsheba, but she finds out and has the coffin brought to her house. She opens it and sees both mother and child. Troy kisses Fanny's corpse.

Telling Bathsheba, "This woman is more to me, dead as she is, than ever you were, or are, or can be," Troy leaves her. He takes a long walk to the coast, strips off his clothes, and bathes in the ocean. A riptide carries him out to sea and he's presumed dead.

William Boldwood still determines to marry Bathsheba. This time, out of guilt over all the pain she's caused him, (and others) she agrees to marry him in a few years, when she can have her husband declared legally dead. What she doesn't know is that he's still alive.

When Troy learns that Boldwood has forced Bathsheba to marry him, he returns on Christmas Eve to claim her. He finds her at Boldwood's house and she screams in horror when she sees him.

Boldwood, refusing to give her up, shoots Troy and kills him. He attempts suicide and is later sentenced to hang. Boldwood's death sentence is commuted on the grounds of insanity after his friends petition the Home Secretary for mercy.

Through all of her tribulations, Bathsheba came to rely more and more on her oldest and dearest friend, Gabriel Oak. But one day, he gives notice that he's resigning from her employ.

When she presses him for an explanation, Gabriel reluctantly admits that he's quitting to protect her good name, as people are gossiping that he wants to marry her.

Bathsheba finally realizes that he is the only one who ever truly cared about her - the only one who really loved her. When he summons the courage to ask for her hand again, she accepts without hesitation, and they quietly marry.

A huge hit with Victorian readers and critics, Far From the Madding Crowd would become an all-time classic novel, adapted for the stage, screen, radio, and television.

Thomas Hardy would write more classic novels, including Tess of the d'Urbervilles (1891) and Jude the Obscure (1895). He died in 1928 at the age of 87.

---

Quote Of The Day

---

"The business of the poet and the novelist is to show the sorriness underlying the grandest things and the grandeur underlying the sorriest things." - Thomas Hardy

---

Vanguard Video

---

Today's video features a reading of the first chapter of Thomas Hardy's classic novel, Far From the Madding Crowd. Enjoy!

Notes For November 1st, 2012

---

This Day In Writing History

---

On November 1st, 1895, Jude the Obscure, the classic novel by the legendary English writer Thomas Hardy, was published in book form.

The semi-autobiographical novel would cause a huge controversy with its themes of sexuality, marriage, class prejudice, and the destructive influence of religion.

A bleak, haunting drama, Jude the Obscure tells the story of Jude Fawley, a poor, working class youth who dreams of becoming a scholar and studying at the university in Christminister, a fictional city based on Oxford.

Unable to afford a proper primary education, Jude educates himself and soon becomes fluent in Latin and Greek. Unfortunately, his plans for Christminster are derailed when he becomes involved with Arabella Donn, the daughter of a local pig farmer.

Although intelligent, the kindly, naive Jude is no match for the vulgar, manipulative Arabella, who seduces him, then traps him in a hasty marriage to avoid scandal.

The loveless marriage doesn't last long, not because Jude wants out, but because Arabella deserts him. Jude moves to Christminster and supports himself as a mason while he studies alone, hoping to enter university sometime in the future.

He meets Sue Bridehead, a cousin of his. As Victorian women go, Sue is a rarity - she's a free-spirited, idealistic intellectual, a symbol of the waning power of Victorian values.

Although Sue has her flaws, Jude falls madly in love with her. She marries his former teacher, Mr. Philloston, and at first, she's satisfied with the normalcy and respectability of married life.

But she and her husband sleep in separate rooms, as she finds him physically repugnant. Her religious beliefs have led her to view sex as something disgusting and sinful. She's also in love with Jude.

An unhappy Sue finally leaves her husband. She and Jude decide to live together in a platonic relationship. As much as she loves Jude, Sue still can't bring herself to consummate that love.

Knowing their family history of unhappy marriages, they fear that if they marry, being legally bound to each other will destroy their love. The unmarried couple live as man and wife, and have two children together.

A child from Jude's previous marriage is bestowed on him; apparently, Arabella was pregnant when she deserted him. Their child is a boy who possesses his father's intelligence. But unlike Dad, he is intensely serious and morose.

Although Jude, Sue, and the children are a happy family, they are condemned and ostracized by society because Jude and Sue are unmarried. Whenever Jude's employers discover this, he's promptly sacked.

When his landlords find out, the family is evicted; this greatly disturbs Jude's son. One day, the boy murders his half-siblings and hangs himself, leaving behind a note that reads "Done because we are too menny."

The shock of the tragedy causes Sue to miscarry her unborn child. She turns to the Church that had cast her out and becomes convinced that the children's deaths were divine retribution for living in sin with Jude.

When Arabella learns of this, she tells Sue's ex-husband Mr. Philloston, who then proposes remarriage. Sue accepts. Jude is devastated, and the scheming Arabella takes advantage of his vulnerable mental state.

She gets him drunk and manipulates him into marrying her yet again. Later, Jude makes a final visit to Sue one frigid night. Although respectable and without sin in the eyes of society and the Church, Sue is absolutely miserable.

Exposure to the freezing weather causes Jude to get sick and his health begins to deteriorate. After he dies, his wife Arabella feels no sorrow. Instead of mourning Jude's passing, she sets out to snare another husband.

Jude the Obscure originally appeared in a serialized format in European and American literary magazines under the titles The Simpletons and Hearts Insurgent.

The serialized version was considerably different from the novel, as the magazine publishers insisted on a heavily sanitized version of the story.

When it was published in book form, in Thomas Hardy's original, unexpurgated version, Jude the Obscure caused a furor in Victorian England.

Critics trashed it as immoral, with one reviewer calling it Jude the Obscene. William Walsham How, England's Bishop of Wakefield, set the novel alight in a public burning.

Hardy was venomously denounced, accused of attacking the Church and the sanctity of marriage. Today, Jude the Obscure is considered a classic work of 19th century English literature - one of Hardy's finest novels.

It would also be his last. Disgusted by the public's reaction to Jude the Obscure, Hardy gave up writing fiction and devoted the rest of his literary career to writing plays and poetry.

---

Quote Of The Day

---

"The business of the poet and the novelist is to show the sorriness underlying the grandest things and the grandeur underlying the sorriest things." - Thomas Hardy

---

Vanguard Video

---

Today's video features a reading from Thomas Hardy's classic novel, Jude the Obscure. Enjoy!