Why a Booktrail?
1800s: A tragic story of missed chance, lost opportunities and loss
Jude the Obscure
What you need to know before your trail
Jude Fawley, lives in a village in Wessex and yearns to be a scholar at Christminster. He studies whilst working in a bakery. However he falls into a trap when a local girl pretends to be pregnant and they have to marry. Not surprisingly, it fails.
Jude has abandoned his studies but moves to Christminster and still wants to be a scholar. He meets someone but she leaves him for another. Regretting her decision, she wants Jude back.
But this is only the start of a very long struggle ahead
Travel Guide
Hardy Country
Hardy Country – consists of a few places which make up Wessex.
“Wessex” – is described as “partly real, partly dream-country” that unifies Hardy’s South West England
Puddletown, near Dorchester – this small village is the inspiration for the novel’s Weatherbury. Dorchester, in turn, is said to have inspired Hardy’s Casterbridge which appears in The Major of Casterbridge
Oxford
Christminster is not real of course but is heavily modelled and inspired by one of the most academic and scolarly places in the country. Jude could study the classics here and be inspired by the spires and those who have studied here before.
Where Next?
