One notable feature of the novels of Thomas Hardy is his use of real locations masked by fictional names. Probably the most famous of these is Casterbridge, aka Dorchester in real life. In Jude The Obscure, the action takes place in a number of different locations, each with its real-life equivalent.
The story kicks off in the village of Marygreen, where Jude Fawley, who has been sent to live with his great-aunt Drusilla following the death of his father, is upset that the local schoolmaster, Phillotson, is taking off for pastures new, namely the university city of Christminster (see below). As it happens, the real-life version of Marygreen is also called Fawley, a village in Berkshire. The church of St Mary the Virgin, completed in 1866, is the real-life version of Marygreen Church in the novel.
Jude Fawley’s dearest wish is to go and study at Christminster, which becomes something of an obsession to the point where he considers it the “New Jerusalem”. However, it is not to be, and he ends up as a stonemason instead. It is not at all hard to guess which is the real-life equivalent of Christminster, especially when we discover that it is to the north-east of Marygreen. A glance at the map reveals that this venerable seat of learning has to be Oxford, one of the most famous university cities in the world along with its cousin to the east, Cambridge.
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| Oxford from Westgate Mall. Photo by Dicklyon, via Wikimedia Commons. |
In another chapter of Jude’s life he finds himself in Melchester, where his on-off love affair with his cousin Sue develops. He goes there to study for the clergy, having been lured by Sue, who is at a Training College in the city. Jude finds work in the cathedral there while reading theological works in preparation for his career. The real-life cathedral city of Salisbury in Wiltshire was the inspiration for Hardy’s Melchester. Salisbury lies to the north of the New Forest and south of Salisbury Plain, with its elegant cathedral spire visible from miles around. The city made the news in 2018 for the worst of reasons, being the location where the poison novichok was used to target former Russian military intelligence officer Sergei Skripal, with an unfortunate local woman ending up dead as a result.
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| Salisbury, Salisbury Cathedral ^ Scenery - geograph.org.uk - 3106160. Photo by Lewis Clarke, via Wikimedia Commons. |
By the time the action has moved to Shaston, Sue is married to Phillotson, who has moved there to run a school. Jude catches up with Sue there and they flee together. In real life, Shaston is the town of Shaftesbury, Dorset, famous for its picturesque cobbled street, Gold Hill, which featured in a 1970s TV advert for Hovis bread.
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| Gold Hill Shaftesbury - geograph.org.uk - 2206454. Photo by peter robinson, via Wikimedia Commons. |
Jude and Sue go to live together at Aldbrickham, which is where Jude’s flighty ex-wife Arabella used to work as a barmaid before she met him. Arabella makes a reappearance in Jude’s life during this time at Aldbrickham, resulting in an unexpected addition to Jude’s family. Aldbrickham’s real-life equivalent is the large Berkshire market town of Reading on the River Thames. The town has long been an important commercial centre, above all most recently for the IT industry.
