Part First, At Marygreen: Chapters 1-4 Summary

Thomas Hardy published this book in 1896, the last of his novels that are richly about what he referred to as character and environment. This novel is the most tragic, telling the story of the impact of environment on one man's desires.

Chapter 1. The schoolmaster, Mr. Phillotson, is leaving the village of Marygreen in order to pursue his education in Christminster. Everyone has come to say goodbye, including Jude Fawley, who was a night student of the schoolmaster. When Jude asks Mr. Phillotson why he is leaving, the schoolmaster explains that the measure of a man is his level of education.

Chapter 2. Jude returns to the bakery where he lives with his aunt, a woman who laments the fact that he did not die with his father or go to Christminster with the schoolmaster...