Like most of Hardy's novels, this one was written for serialization, but the finished text was much more effectively revised to minimize the sense of anticlimax that comes with serialization than was, for example, The Return of the Native or The Mayor of Casterbridge. A few episodes of that sort remain, such as the melodramatic moment when Sue runs away from her teacher training school, swims a river, and shows up at Jude's bachelor quarters, but in the main this novel indicates how much Hardy's tactic of revising away the compromises he felt to be forced upon him by serial publication improved as he came to the end of his career as a novelist. On the other hand, it is of course possible that the many problems he had with the serialization of Jude strengthened his resolve not to include such compromises as would...