Jude the Obscure (Wessex Novels Volume VIII [8])

vii, [1], 515, [1] pp. 8vo. Frontispiece etching by H. MacBeth-Raeburn. Hardy's last completed novel. Its protagonist, Jude Fawley, is a working-class young man, a stonemason, who dreams of becoming a scholar. The other main character is his cousin, Sue Bridehead, who is also his central love interest. The novel is concerned in particular with issues of class, education, religion, morality and marriage.