Jude The Obscure: Thomas Hardy

Hardy’s last novel is the story of a young working man destroyed by the partial fulfilment of his dreams. Torn between his desires for the life of the body and the life of the mind, as represented by two women – the vulgar and lustrous Arabella and the refined but frigid Sue – Jude longs above all for the spiritual wholeness represented by the university town of Christminster which rejects him.