Letters reveal Hardy switched to poetry over harsh 'Jude the Obscure' reviews

Thomas Hardy abandoned his career as a novelist because he was hurt by harsh reviews of Jude the Obscure, letters to be auctioned at Sotheby's have revealed.

The prolific author and poet had always been sensitive to the opinions of critics. But letters from the collection of Frederick Adams, to be auctioned on 7 November, indicate what triggered Hardy to abandon writing novels and concentrate on poetry for the rest of his life.

An American journalist, Jeanette Gilder, was responsible for wounding Hardy the most, with her fierce comments about Jude's amorality. Later she requested an interview with Hardy in an attempt to set the record straight after her earlier hostility, but the author turned her down.

With heavy irony, he responded: "My respect for my own writings and reputation is so very slight that I care little about what happens to either, so that the rectification of judgements ... and the way in which my books are interpreted, do not much interest me.

"Those readers who, like yourself, could not see that Jude ... makes for more morality than any other book I have written, are not likely to be made to do so by a newspaper article, even from your attractive pen."

Hardy admitted to his American publisher that he was "surprised" and "distressed" by the nature of one review. Even his friend, the novelist George Gissing, branded the book "Jude the Obscene".

Jude, a tragic working-class hero, is pitted against society and circumstances in the book. Hardy's agonised frankness about sexuality, divorce and adultery caused it to be seen as another "marriage-question" novel, and condemned in some quarters as coarse.

The collection of three letters regarding Gilder, written in 1896, are expected to fetch up to £6,000. They are part of more than 500 lots by Hardy in the largest collection remaining in private hands, and are estimated to raise £500,000.

The sale at Sotheby's, expected to raise £1.5m, also includes works by Virginia Woolf, complete with her revisions, expected to fetch up to £40,000, and a comprehensive collection of works by the American poet Robert Frost. Peter Selley, Sotheby's literature specialist, described the sale as unique.