Hardy's masterpiece traces a poor stonemason's ill-fated romance with his free-spirited cousin. No Victorian institution is spared — marriage, religion, education — and the outrage following publication led the embittered author to renounce fiction. Modern critics hail this novel as a pioneering work of feminism and socialist thought.
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Jude the Obscure is ultimately about a misfit couple trying to live their "alternative lifestyle" against the religious, moralistic and academic st... (show more)
Jude the Obscure is ultimately about a misfit couple trying to live their "alternative lifestyle" against the religious, moralistic and academic strictures of English country society. But their story is not an especially romantic one. From early in the book, Jude never really receives the strong love he wishes Susan to demonstrate. And Susan's never really sorts out what she wants or doesn't want out of life or love. There's is a sort of star-crossed relationship.
Hardy draws these two characters mostly sympathetically and believably, although at times Jude seems rather too patient with Susan's inconsistencies, and Susan too inexplicably flighty and impulsive. I found myself sometimes talking to them on the page and telling them both to "get real". Still there were so many truthful aspects of the descriptions of their personalities and interactions that I tended to ignore the few annoyances. Other highlights for me were his descriptions of the countryside, villages and towns, and his use of vernacular ways of speaking.
There are enough classical and biblical allusions and symbols to keep any scholar busy, but fortunately they don't intrude on the narrative. There are only a few times in the book when events or reactions felt "forced" to provide grist for Hardy's social commentary, but for the most part people behaved naturally enough. For me, the horrific tragedy which brings the book to its conclusion was a bit extreme, and seemed constructed solely to bring matters to a bad end. Still, the book was memorable and worthwhile. (show less)
This book is such a downer. Thomas Hardy has negligible respect for women and the optimism of a drowning slug.
Whew. This book pushed me into a Hardy-binge, as I watched the movies "Tess" and the "Mayor of Casterbridge" during my very slow read of this book. I've been a Hardy fan for years, but haven't read any in probably a decade. Summary? How about:
1) Humbling insights into the human condition.
2) Fascinating exploration of pre-WWI / post-Victorian moral/social conflicts.
3) Fully realized character development.
4) Give me a T...R...A...G...I...C!
The book was publishe... (show more)
Whew. This book pushed me into a Hardy-binge, as I watched the movies "Tess" and the "Mayor of Casterbridge" during my very slow read of this book. I've been a Hardy fan for years, but haven't read any in probably a decade. Summary? How about:
1) Humbling insights into the human condition.
2) Fascinating exploration of pre-WWI / post-Victorian moral/social conflicts.
3) Fully realized character development.
4) Give me a T...R...A...G...I...C!
The book was published in 1895, and one of the things that really stuck out for me here was his, at the time very bold, but by current standards very tentative, critique of marriage and religion. You can tell how he's pushing the line of social acceptance for his readers. And yet just 30 years later you've got Hemingway, Joyce and others whose style and themes are just light years closer to what we would consider contemporary. Hardy was really pushing the 19th century novel's conventions, while being fundamentally true to the language and form. He was alive when the first really 'modern' literature was published, and I would be fascinated to learn his feelings about those authors who were finally able to destroy the conventions that he was held to - even as he tried to wriggle his way out, at least insofar as the themes he explored. (show less)
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Through the 5/6 mark of this book, I was quite prepared to give this book a minimum of 4 & 1/2 stars, perhaps 5. Thomas Hardy's last novel, one whose criticism drove him from full-length fiction, is full of tough decisions. As in most of his novels, the protagonists are defeated by fate and social customs. Jude is a man whose desire is to be a university man (in a day when not just anyone could go), and work in the church. In the meantime, he becomes a stonemason and is coerced into a... (show more)
Through the 5/6 mark of this book, I was quite prepared to give this book a minimum of 4 & 1/2 stars, perhaps 5. Thomas Hardy's last novel, one whose criticism drove him from full-length fiction, is full of tough decisions. As in most of his novels, the protagonists are defeated by fate and social customs. Jude is a man whose desire is to be a university man (in a day when not just anyone could go), and work in the church. In the meantime, he becomes a stonemason and is coerced into a marriage doomed to fail. After its failure, he meets free-thinking Sue Bridehead, his cousin he had never met. Sue opens his mind, inspires him to defy social conventions, and captures his heart. When Sue discovers that Jude is still married (even though his wife has left him), she runs away and marries Jude's old schoolmaster Philloston. In time, this marriage fails and Jude and Sue begin living together out of wedlock and forming a family. However, problems abound. Whenever their status is discovered, they are forced to move, and Jude struggles to maintain a living. There is also the complicated character of Sue Bridehead, who has an unexplained loathing of intimacy, but desires others to have those feelings towards her. As in most Hardy novels, a tragedy sets the downfalls in motion. In this book (and the reason for the star reduction) is the length devoted to maranating the inevitable. As a Christian, I find this book to be a compelling example that Christianity as a religion does not work. It can only work as a relationship with the God being served. Finally, Philloston is a sympathetic character, unfortunate enough to be in love with Sue, and admirable in his humility to sacrifice his wants for hers. (show less)
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Where did Jude go wrong?
I think the slickest thing Hardy does in this book is to lure/allow the readers into viewing Jude and Sue as victims of marriage rather than victims of their own poor choices. Jude didn't make his fatal mistake at the alter, he made it when he slept with Arabella. Sue didn't make her fatal mistake at the alter, she made it by not exploring her heart before or during her engagement. Had either Jude or Sue had more gumption, their lives surely would have turned out better.
A sobering lesson, indeed...
John Carl about 1 year agoThis book has been added to these lists:
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