Independently Published

Jude the Obscure Independently Published

Jude Fawley is a studious eleven-year-old schoolboy who lives in the village of Marygreen with his Aunt Drusilla, a baker. Jude is the only student who is upset when the village schoolmaster, Mr. Richard Phillotson, leaves to pursue a college degree in the nearby university town of Christminster. However, Mr. Phillotson's leaving inspires Jude to romanticize the city of Christminster, and he gets into the habit of climbing a hill outside the village to get a view of the city. He hears from some laborers that Christminster isn't a good place for working-class people like him, but he ignores these warnings. Jude decides that he will become an academic. After a failed attempt to procure some Greek and Latin textbooks from Physician Vilbert, the local quack-doctor, he writes to Mr. Phillotson, who gamely sends him some texts. For the next three or four years, Jude diligently studies the classical languages. He also takes an apprenticeship in stonemasonry so that he will be able to save money for his studies. At age nineteen, Jude wants to leave for Christminster but is distracted by a romance with Arabella Donn, the flirtatious daughter of a pig-butcher. Arabella wants to marry Jude but worries that he will move to Christminster without her. Her friends, Anny and Sarah, advise her to get pregnant so Jude will have to marry her. Arabella goes along with this plan and seduces Jude. Just as he is about to break up with her and leave for Christminster, she reveals to him that she is pregnant, and they marry the following week. Jude and Arabella buy a cottage outside Marygreen, but they are miserable. They get along badly and their relationship difficulties are made worse by the fact that they have very little money. Arabella is surprised to learn that her pregnancy was a false alarm, and Jude becomes frustrated that he was coerced into a bad marriage under false pretenses. One day, they need to slaughter a pig. Arabella, who is experienced due to her father's background as a butcher, offers to do it, but Jude insists and is unable to slaughter the pig properly because he wants to give it a quick, merciful death. Jude and Arabella continue to argue, and one day after a major fight, Arabella leaves him to go to Australia with her parents. Jude is now free to go to Christminster as soon as he finishes his apprenticeship.