Yeah, milum, there's a lot of truth in what I wrote. I don't have the exact dates, but 1896 is pretty darn close to when it all happened for Hardy--for him to announce that he would write no more novels. And he didn't.
Here's something off the Web:
"In 1896, following more than 20 years as one of the most popular and most
criticized novelists in England, Thomas Hardy announced that he would not write
another novel as long as he lived. He kept his word. He refused to give in to critics
who had attacked his works as being overly pessimistic and peopled with immoral
characters.
Looking back at Hardy’s novels today, it is hard to imagine that they sparked such
violent responses from Victorian critics. Yet the attacks on Hardy’s last two major
novels, Tess of the D’Urbervilles and Jude the Obscure, were particularly fierce.
Many libraries banned Jude from their shelves, and one bishop announced that
the book was so indecent that he had thrown it into a fire. Hardy responded that
the bishop had probably burned the book because he couldn’t burn its author.
From his appearance and personality, Thomas Hardy would seem an unlikely man
to provoke such controversy. He was small, quiet, and shy. He was a country
person rather than a city person, and the characters of his novels have a realistic,
earthy quality about them."
I do believe that Lady Chatterly and Jude were published the same year. Edit: I stand corrected by AnnaS. below--I was completely wrong about Chatterly's date of publication here.
