Jude the Obscure, the semi-autobiographical final novel from Thomas Hardy explores notions of surprising candor; within the eponymous protagonist lies the tragic truth of failed ambitions and relationships. In a fierce exploration of the darkness of love and the intellect, this is one of the great tragic novels of English literature. Jude Fawley, an earnest boy from a rural English village, dreams of a life of academia despite his working-class background....

The classic novel explores the divisions of culture and class in late-Victorian England through the story of a disputed inheritance.

The story opens in contemporary Miami, where a young Cuban woman has for years been searching in vain for details of her birth mother. All she knows is that her mother delivered her into the hands of her grandfather, who fled Havana for Los Angeles with baby in tow. The quest for her mother seems hopeless until a mysterious parcel containing writings and photographs arrives in the mail. Along with several trips back to Havana, the daughter fits the...

"What if a childless man in his forties discovers that he has a daughter, the result of an affair twenty-five years earlier? What if the daughter is pregnant? And what if she's on the run for murder?"--Cover p. [4]

Jade longs to begin a family with her husband Max. When she discovers that Max has an illegitimate son, her life is turned upside down. She flees to her Iowa childhood home, and questions everything she thought she knew about family, love, and motherhood. Does the future rest on the power of her past-- or in the goodness of God's tender mercies?