Featuring an appendix of discussion questions, this Diversion Classics edition is ideal for use in book groups and classrooms. A penniless orphan with dreams of becoming a scholar, Jude Fawley is instead thrust into a life of hard labor. Forced to abandon his passion and working as a mason in the shadow of the University he wishes to attend, he meets his true love, his cousin, Sue Bridehead. Trapped between their feelings for one another and a society that condemns the relationship, Jude and Sue’s hopes are painfully snuffed out. Thomas Hardy’s final complete novel is an unflinching look at a life choked by the strict morals of an oppressive age and a must-read take on the human condition.