Jude Fawley, an orphan from the village of Marygreen, teaches himself Latin and Greek and dreams of studying at the great university city of Christminster. Trapped early in a marriage to the earthy Arabella, he works as a stonemason within sight of colleges that will never admit him, and falls in love with his cousin Sue Bridehead, a brilliant, restless freethinker.
The outcry over its treatment of marriage and religion helped end Hardy’s career as a novelist; it remains his darkest and boldest book. Download the free EPUB.