Jude the obscure

Jude Fawley is a stonemason with a passion for scholarship who longs to study at the nearby university town of Christminster.

Then Arabella Donn comes into his life. His longing for her eclipses as else for a time, and they marry, but unhappily.

Meeting his spirited and intelligent cousin, Sue Bridehead, Jude dares to dream again.

But in acknowledging their feelings for one another, Jude and Sue risk becoming social outcasts.

In defying conventional morality, their lives become plagued uncertainty and torment.