Why the last novel?

The depressing nature of Jude is surely a reflection of Hardy's own attitude at the time of writing it. It expresses a negative view of marriage, ambition, the church and the education system, all of which are part of Jude's dream that eventually becomes Jude's nightmare. It is often said that Hardy gave up writing novels because of the poor reception given to the publication of Jude, but it seems equally likely that Hardy's decision to turn entirely to poetry writing was a result of his own feelings of failure at the time. The rejection of this ultimately black novel was no more than the last straw that forced him to accept what was already in his heart, if not in his mind.<br>Other Victorian novelists were as keen to address the deficiences of Victorian society, and attacked various institutions from slavery and child labour to the school system and the workhouse. However, they did not normally ensconce their ideas within such a dark and oppressive narrative, nor did they give up in the face of their failure to achieve instantaneous change within society.<br><br><br>

A combination between personal reasons and the manner in which it was received.

It's been a number of years but I believe Rider Haggard related that Hardy was reading a review of Jude in a newspaper while at the local men's club they were frequentling (I think) and was so infuriated that he swore he was done wriitng. I believe it's in Haggard's autobiography but the memory fades but I assure you the story remained impressed on the grey cells all these years as an unfortunate example of a critic's power.

Probably because Hardy realised that he would always be constricted by the era he lived in. Novels exploring sexuality, even if there is no explicit sex there, did not go down as serious moral fiction in the nineteenth-century. I think if Hardy had continued writing in the early twentieth century, he'd be edging towards DH Lawrence.