Jude the Obscure
Upon its first appearance in 1895, Thomas Hardy’s Jude the Obscure shocked Victorian critics and readers with a frank depiction of sexuality and an unbridled indictment of the institutions of marriage, education, and religion, reportedly causing one Angli-can bishop to order the book publicly...
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Upon its first appearance in 1895, Thomas Hardy’s Jude the Obscure shocked Victorian critics and readers with a frank depiction of sexuality and an unbridled indictment of the institutions of marriage, education, and religion, reportedly causing one Angli-can bishop to order the book publicly burned. The experience so exhausted Hardy that he never wrote a work of fiction again.Rich in symbolism, Jude the Obscure is the story of Jude Fawley and his struggle to rise from his station as a poor Wessex stonemason to that of a scholar at Christminster. It is also the story of Jude’s ill-fated relationship with his cousin Sue Bridehead, and the ultimate tragedy that causes Jude’s undoing and Sue’s transformation. Jude the Obscure explores man’s essential loneliness and remains one of Hardy’s most widely read novels.
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Format: paperback
ISBN:
9780375757419 (0375757414)
Publish date: August 14th 2001
Publisher: Modern Library
Pages no: 452
Edition language: English
“Hey Jude, don't be afraidYou were made to go out and get herThe minute you let her under your skinThen you begin to make it better” I would caution anyone against taking romantic advice from Sir Paul McCartney, splendid music legend that he is. This is especially true for a Thomas Hardy protagonist...
Jude the Obscure has a (deserved) reputation as a difficult, anti-marriage novel. Like all of the other Hardy novels I've read, lives spin out of control and no one finds happiness. Jude's sin, as I saw it, was that he wanted what he couldn't have. As a child, Jude built up a dream to be a scholar i...
It’s taken me a long time to review this book, considering when I finished it, simply because I’m not entirely sure how I feel about it. It definitely had its ups and downs, and there are really disturbing moments that made me question if I liked this book at all. While it was mostly well written an...
Jude is an enigma to me. For all his radical ideals and lofty aspirations he is tragically under the influence of the two women in his life. He is twice tricked into marriage by one of them and willingly submits to the tempestuous cravings of the other because he views her as his soulmate and true w...
I thought this novel was really well written, but did make for dense reading in parts. I was stunned at how dark the plot turned out to be - with the unhappy marriages, incest, childhood depression, class struggles... there seemed to be only glimpses of sunshine in Jude's life but I think that's wha...
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