Thomas Hardy

Jude the Obscure, Hardy's final novel, was published on this date in 1895. He lived for decades more but wrote only poetry and drama after this, tired of being called obscene and immoral. After an earlier novel similarly blasted, Hardy had written in his diary, "Well, if this sort of thing continues no more novel-writing for me. A man must be a fool to deliberately stand up to be shot at."

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