Thomas Hardy · 1895 · overland

Thomas Hardys last and bleakest novel, published in 1895. Jude Fawley, a village stonemason, dreams of studying at the university of Christminster but is shut out by poverty and class. His life is bound up with his cousin Sue Bridehead in a tragic story of thwarted ambition, unorthodox love and social cruelty. The novel moves through the towns of Hardys Wessex, each a lightly disguised real place in the south of England, from Marygreen to the spires of Christminster where Jude finally dies.

1. 1
   Marygreen

   At Marygreen (the real Fawley in Berkshire) the boy Jude Fawley dreams of the university city glowing on the horizon.

2. 2
   Christminster

   Christminster is Hardys Oxford, whose colleges shut their doors to the self-taught stonemason Jude.

3. 3
   Melchester

   At Melchester (Salisbury) Jude follows Sue to the cathedral city and its training college.

4. 4
   Shaston

   Shaston is the hill-town of Shaftesbury, where Sue keeps a school with her husband Phillotson.

5. 5
   Aldbrickham

   At Aldbrickham (Reading) Jude and Sue live together as outcasts, moving from town to town for work.

6. 6
   Christminster

   Jude returns at last to Christminster, broken and ill, to die within sound of the college bells that never admitted him.