Jude the Obscure

Jude the Obscure (1895) by Thomas Hardy is a novel dealing with issues of class, education, religion and marriage. Jude is a working-class young man, a stonemason, who dreams of becoming a scholar. As a youth, Jude teaches himself Classical Greek and Latin in his spare time, while working first in his great aunt’s bakery, with the hope of entering university. But before he can try to do this the naïve Jude is seduced by Arabella, a rather coarse and superficial local girl who traps him into marriage. They separate, and he falls in love with Sue, his free-spirited cousin. After a scandal Sue and Jude spend some time living together without any sexual relationship, because of Sue’s dislike both of sex and the institution of marriage. Later Sue and Jude have two children together and expect the third—while being unmarried. Jude’s employers dismiss him because of the illicit relationship, and the family is forced into a nomadic lifestyle…