Jude the Obscure was the last novel that Hardy wrote, although
The Well-Beloved was published later. Hardy had been
planning and writing Jude since 1887. The novel appeared serially in
Harper's New Monthly Magazine from December to November, 1894.
After Hardy restored the bowdlerizations he had to make for serial
publication, the novel was published in November 1895 (post-dated 1896) by
Osgood, McIlvaine. Twenty thousand copies were in print by February 1896.