"Jude the Obscure" by Thomas Hardy is a novel published in 1895. It follows Jude Fawley, a working-class stonemason who dreams of becoming a scholar at Christminster. His ambitions become entangled with his passionate but troubled relationship with his cousin, Sue Bridehead. Through failed marriages, social ostracism, and personal tragedy, the novel explores the crushing weight of Victorian society's institutions—particularly marriage, religion, and class barriers—on those who dare to defy convention. (This is an automatically generated summary.)