The other main agonist is his cousin, Sue Bridehead, who is his recurring love interest. Jude Fawley is a stonemason who dreams of becoming a scholar. The main character is a well-developed as a pro(t)agonist. While all who love the studied lyricism and social insight of Hardy will not find this novel wanting, the heavy burdens of institutional fatalism require me to caution readers about trying to bring this volume into bedside with your lovers for its romance-it has none. Hardy's last, and perhaps saddest, completed novel. Thank you, again, to Ken for the invite and I hope we can do more of these together. We aren't quite done and will wrap up soon with a discussion of the final two chapters.

There are a lot of people with more experience than me in reading classics like Jude the Obscure and the comments and suggestions about the deeper meanings of the story and the characters has been very interesting to read. I honestly can say I looked forward to coming home at night and reading this book and will be seeking out more of Hardy's novels in the future. It is always a little bit challenging getting used to a previous century's writing style but once I did this book took off for me, both because of Hardy's enjoyable writing style and the story of Jude. Regardless, Thomas Hardy's novel is a pleasure to read. I am actually more familiar with Russian literature than English as it was required reading for my degree program in college. This has been a real eye-opener to me as I am always glad to read in areas I am not familiar with and 19th century English literature is one of those areas I simply ignored. I was invited to read this book as part of a group of other Goodreads members to participate in close reading of Jude the Obscure.

Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy