Jude the Obscure is a book written by Thomas Hardy. It first appeared as a magazine series in December 1894 and was later published as a book in November 1895 (even though the book’s cover lists the year as 1896). The main character, Jude Fawley, is a young man from a working-class family who works as a stone worker and wishes to become a student. Another important character is his cousin, Sue Bridehead, who is also the person he loves most. The story focuses on topics such as class differences, education, religion, moral choices, and marriage. This was Hardy’s 14th and final novel that he published.

Plot summary

The novel follows Jude Fawley, a young man who lives in a village in southern England, which is part of a fictional area called Wessex created by the author, Thomas Hardy. Jude dreams of becoming a scholar at "Christminster," a city inspired by the real city of Oxford. As a boy, Jude teaches himself to read and write in Greek and Latin during his free time while working in his great-aunt's bakery. He hopes to one day attend university. However, before he can try, Jude is tricked into marriage by Arabella Donn, a local woman who lies about being pregnant. Their marriage fails, and Arabella leaves Jude. She later moves to Australia, where she marries another man in a way that is not allowed by the law (bigamy).

After Arabella leaves, Jude moves to Christminster and works as a mason while studying on his own, hoping to attend university. There, he meets his cousin Sue Bridehead and falls in love with her. Soon after, Jude introduces Sue to Mr. Phillotson, a former teacher who helps Sue become a teacher and convinces her to marry him, even though he is much older than her. Sue later regrets this marriage because she is not happy with her husband and does not want to have a sexual relationship with him. She asks Mr. Phillotson for permission to leave him for Jude, and he agrees when he realizes she is unwilling to follow his expectations. This causes Mr. Phillotson to lose his job as a schoolteacher.

Sue and Jude live together for a time without having a sexual relationship because Sue dislikes both marriage and sex. Later, Arabella returns to England after leaving her husband in Australia. This causes more problems, and Arabella and Jude divorce. Arabella legally marries her Australian husband, while Sue also divorces Mr. Phillotson. Soon after, Arabella reveals that she had a child with Jude, which she sends to him. The child is named Jude and nicknamed "Little Father Time" because of his serious nature.

Jude eventually convinces Sue to have a sexual relationship with him, and they have two children together, expecting a third. However, Jude and Sue are treated badly by others because they live together without being married, especially after their children are born. Jude loses his job because of their relationship, and the family moves from town to town across Wessex looking for work and a place to live. Eventually, they return to Christminster. Their son, "Little Father Time," believes that he and his half-siblings are the reason for the family's problems. The morning after returning to Christminster, he kills Sue's two children and himself by hanging. He leaves a note that says, "Done because we are too menny [sic]." Soon after, Sue has a miscarriage.

Overwhelmed by grief and blaming herself for her son's actions, Sue turns to the church, which she had previously rejected. She believes the children's deaths are punishment from God for her relationship with Jude. Though she is afraid of returning to Mr. Phillotson, she feels she should have never left him for religious reasons. Arabella learns of Sue's feelings and tells Mr. Phillotson, who proposes they remarry. This causes Sue to leave Jude again and marry Mr. Phillotson. She punishes herself by having a sexual relationship with him. Jude is heartbroken and remarries Arabella, who tricks him into marriage again after giving him alcohol.

After one final visit to Sue in freezing weather, Jude becomes seriously ill and dies within a year in Christminster, unable to achieve his goals in love or scholarship. It is later revealed that Sue has become quiet and worn down by life with Mr. Phillotson. Arabella does not mourn Jude's death and instead prepares to trick another man into marriage.

Themes

The book talks about many social issues in Victorian England, especially those connected to marriage, the Church, and education. These topics are shown through the differences between characters. For example, at the start of their relationship, Jude has strong religious beliefs, while Sue does not. This difference becomes even clearer later when their roles change. Even though the main characters show both sides of these issues, the book as a whole criticizes Christianity and other social institutions.

Jude’s journey in the story shows how religion plays a confusing and conflicting role in his life. From where he grew up in Marygreen, Jude saw religion as the final goal of a life that felt difficult and unexciting. However, Jude is kept out of the University of Christminster, which stops him from becoming a clergy member. This makes him turn to other, less satisfying goals. A similar situation happens with marriage. Hardy shows marriage as a forced duty that causes unhappiness for the characters.

Although Hardy said his book had little to do with his own life, people who read it noticed similarities between the book’s themes and Hardy’s experiences as a working-class writer. Issues like unhappy marriages, questions about religion, and social problems appear in Hardy’s other books and in his life. The struggle to move beyond strict class rules is a key connection between the book and Hardy’s life, especially regarding education and the working class. Jude wants to go to the university in Christminster, but he can’t afford the cost of studying or meet the training needed for a church position. This stops him from improving his economic situation and escaping the working class. This theme was personal for Hardy, as he, like Jude, could not afford to study at Oxford or Cambridge, even though he loved learning and the classics. Some details about Jude’s self-study, like reading Latin late at night while working, are in Hardy’s own story. However, unlike Jude’s family, Hardy’s mother was educated and taught him until he started school at eight. He later studied in Dorchester and showed academic promise until he became an apprentice at sixteen.

Another similarity between the book and Hardy’s life happens when Sue becomes deeply interested in religion after being indifferent to it before. Hardy’s first wife, Emma, had a similar change. She went from being free-spirited and not interested in religion to becoming very religious as she grew older. Hardy strongly disliked organized religion, and this difference caused tension in his marriage with Emma. This tension made their relationship more distant.

Emma Hardy also disliked the book Jude the Obscure, partly because it criticized religion and partly because she worried readers might think the relationship between Jude and Sue was like her own difficult relationship with Hardy. In a symbolic way, this connection was true.

Writing

Around 1887, Hardy started writing notes for a story about a working man who struggled to get into university. This may have been influenced by the academic failure and suicide of his friend, Horace Moule. From December 1894 to November 1895, a censored version of the novel was published in parts in Harper's New Monthly Magazine, first titled The Simpletons and later Hearts Insurgent. In 1895, the book was published in London with its current title, Jude the Obscure (dated 1896). In the preface of the first edition, Hardy explained how the novel was created and wrote, stating that some details were inspired by the death of a woman (likely his cousin, Tryphena Sparks) in 1890.

Reviews

The novel Jude the Obscure was called "Jude the Obscene" by at least one reviewer. Some critics were strongly opposed to the book, including Walsham How, the Bishop of Wakefield. Hardy later said the bishop had burned a copy of the novel. Years later, Hardy remarked, “After the press criticized the book, its next problem was being burned by a bishop—probably because he could not burn me.” Some people believe negative reviews caused Hardy to stop writing novels after Jude the Obscure, but poet C. H. Sisson called this idea "superficial and absurd."

The novel is ranked 23rd on the BBC’s list of "The 100 Greatest British Novels" and 20th on The Guardian’s list of "The 100 Best Novels Written in English."

D. H. Lawrence, who admired Hardy, was confused by the character Sue Bridehead. He tried to explain her complex feelings about love and relationships in his book A Study of Thomas Hardy (1914).

At least one recent scholar has claimed that Jude the Obscure used many ideas from an earlier novel, The Wages of Sin by Lucas Malet.

Marxist critic Terry Eagleton, in an introduction to a 1974 edition of the book, disagreed with the common view that the novel is "the tragedy of an oversexed peasant boy." Instead, he focused on the social context of the story and suggested it shows a struggle between ideal goals and real-life challenges.

Adaptations

The novel has been adapted into the following works:

• A six-part TV series titled Jude the Obscure (1971), directed by Hugh David, and starring Robert Powell and Fiona Walker.
• A movie titled Jude (1996), directed by Michael Winterbottom, and starring Christopher Eccleston and Kate Winslet.
• A play titled Jude, written by British playwright Howard Brenton, premiered at The Hampstead Theatre in North London in May 2019. In this version, Jude is a free-spirited female Syrian refugee who works as a cleaner. Her cousin is a male relative who becomes a radical Muslim, and she is regularly visited by a character who represents the Greek poet Euripides.
• The BBC Radio 4 series Hardy's Women (2020) included a three-part adaptation of Jude the Obscure.