Jude the Obscure – Thomas Hardy

"I am in a chaos of principles—groping in the dark—acting by instinct and not after example."

Jude Fawley, a working-class stonemason, dreams of studying at the university in Christminster. But his ambitions are thwarted by poverty and class prejudice. His personal life is equally tragic: trapped in a loveless marriage, he falls for his free-spirited cousin Sue Bridehead. Their attempt to live together outside of marriage draws the wrath of society and leads to a horrific tragedy.

Thomas Hardy's final novel is a bleak, angry attack on the Victorian institutions of marriage, the church, and the university. Its relentless tragedy and frank treatment of sex caused a scandal that led Hardy to give up writing novels forever.