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3.7 AVERAGE
3.7 AVERAGE
If you don't like sad books, steer clear of this one. To call this book 'sad' though seems too shallow, this truly is the most hope-destroying, depressing book I have ever read. It's the sort of book that will make you want to hide under your blankets for weeks after reading it, but it will also change your life. Tragic, but absolutely stunning.
dark
emotional
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Absolutely amazing, one of my all time favorites. This time reading it really opened my eyes to some different opinions.
I just finished Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy. With a little luck I'll finish Silent Spring this month to. Sometimes just reading a great book is part of a repetitive boost to my ego and that's why I love classics there is always somebody out there that agrees that this is still a great book even 125 year after its publishing. Here's my review:
Jude the Obscure is a philosophical downer. I felt it was interesting enough but, It only barely kept me reading the first 300 pages. I read a Modern Library edition from the 1960's. There were 498 pages in it. The story focuses on the life of a country stonemason, Jude, and his love for his cousin Sue, a free thinking independent. While love could be identified as a central theme in the novel, it was Jude’s dream of being a college man that interested me most. What is life with out love and love’s tragic bonds that destroy this family to do with today’s heart wrenching tales of family strife. Does even making the effort to graduate from a University stifle the individual.
Reading Hardy’s other works such as “Tess of the d’Urbervilles,” and “Return of the Native,” and "Far From the Madding Crowd", and "The Mayor of Castorbridge leave me to conclude that it takes universal suffering to reach our own conclusions of life in Hardy's eyes. It is our morals and customs that need our conformity to. "Jude"was Hardy's biggest effort of his doom and gloom style. Saying that we all must live by the errors of our past in an endless cycle of self-erected oppression and I can say we will not succeed to live productive lives until we balance past Karma and choose to believe in our own potential. If we think it we can do it.
Jude was flawed in his character not identified in the earlier part of the book, but as the plot sinks deeper in to spiritual debt the real Jude is finally seen. There are many like him that lines the halls of doom. Jude was self immolated by his own lack of thinking two moves ahead as in a game of Chess. Love can do that. College on the other hand is not for everyone but, in today's times looks to me to be more open to all but more restrictive due to it's cost than ever before. Every generation has different philosophic belief's and the codes of behavior are always changing, but Hardy was writing as if he was in the 21st Century.
Maybe the author had a hard way to go in life and his works reflected his dismay at society, but he left us with a lesson on desire and how it pans out for so many. Is destiny luck or celestial in nature? I can’t say this book was the way I envisioned my finish to reading Hardy’s main novels but, I’m glad I took this path and not the road untaken. Below is a critique written in Magill's Master plots:
"Jude the Obscure" marks the peak of Hardy's gloom and deterministic philosophy. Sunshine never breaks though the heavy clouds of tragedy that smother this narrative of war between the flesh and the spirit. The gloom becomes steadily heavier as circumstances conspire to keep the hero from realizing any happiness he seeks. The plot is believable; the characters are three-dimensional. The story itself is a vehicle for Hardy's feelings toward contemporary marriage laws and academic snobbery. His sexual frankness, his unconventional treatment of the theme of marriage, and his use of pure horror in scenes like the deaths of Little Father Time and the younger children outraged readers of his generation."
Jude the Obscure is a philosophical downer. I felt it was interesting enough but, It only barely kept me reading the first 300 pages. I read a Modern Library edition from the 1960's. There were 498 pages in it. The story focuses on the life of a country stonemason, Jude, and his love for his cousin Sue, a free thinking independent. While love could be identified as a central theme in the novel, it was Jude’s dream of being a college man that interested me most. What is life with out love and love’s tragic bonds that destroy this family to do with today’s heart wrenching tales of family strife. Does even making the effort to graduate from a University stifle the individual.
Reading Hardy’s other works such as “Tess of the d’Urbervilles,” and “Return of the Native,” and "Far From the Madding Crowd", and "The Mayor of Castorbridge leave me to conclude that it takes universal suffering to reach our own conclusions of life in Hardy's eyes. It is our morals and customs that need our conformity to. "Jude"was Hardy's biggest effort of his doom and gloom style. Saying that we all must live by the errors of our past in an endless cycle of self-erected oppression and I can say we will not succeed to live productive lives until we balance past Karma and choose to believe in our own potential. If we think it we can do it.
Jude was flawed in his character not identified in the earlier part of the book, but as the plot sinks deeper in to spiritual debt the real Jude is finally seen. There are many like him that lines the halls of doom. Jude was self immolated by his own lack of thinking two moves ahead as in a game of Chess. Love can do that. College on the other hand is not for everyone but, in today's times looks to me to be more open to all but more restrictive due to it's cost than ever before. Every generation has different philosophic belief's and the codes of behavior are always changing, but Hardy was writing as if he was in the 21st Century.
Maybe the author had a hard way to go in life and his works reflected his dismay at society, but he left us with a lesson on desire and how it pans out for so many. Is destiny luck or celestial in nature? I can’t say this book was the way I envisioned my finish to reading Hardy’s main novels but, I’m glad I took this path and not the road untaken. Below is a critique written in Magill's Master plots:
"Jude the Obscure" marks the peak of Hardy's gloom and deterministic philosophy. Sunshine never breaks though the heavy clouds of tragedy that smother this narrative of war between the flesh and the spirit. The gloom becomes steadily heavier as circumstances conspire to keep the hero from realizing any happiness he seeks. The plot is believable; the characters are three-dimensional. The story itself is a vehicle for Hardy's feelings toward contemporary marriage laws and academic snobbery. His sexual frankness, his unconventional treatment of the theme of marriage, and his use of pure horror in scenes like the deaths of Little Father Time and the younger children outraged readers of his generation."
A misogynist late Victorian cri de coeur that’s quite the page turner nonetheless. Beautifully written but what rage!
emotional
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
dark
emotional
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Content Warnings
Moderate: Suicide
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes