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3.7 AVERAGE
3.7 AVERAGE
I was required to read this book for a college class and it was one of the most depressing reads of my life.
I've said before that I don't like gloomy books, and that's true, but I also see why people write them, and why it's important to read them. Hardy got so much flack for writing this novel that he decided to stick to poetry from there on out, but I'm glad he wrote this, and, while I didn't love it, it's an important book, and I'm glad I read it.
It's pretty heartbreaking. Jude and Sue are way ahead of their time. They don't want to marry, because members of their family never have any luck with marriage, and because they don't feel like they should have to marry when they're happy as they are. They say a couple of times themselves that they were born too early. I think we have to intuit that Hardy was as well. He's very against convention for convention's sake, and he doesn't soften his criticisms of social norms, which is why, I suspect, there was such uproar about this book. His sympathy is all with Jude and Sue, but he keeps their plight realistic. As much as you might want him to throw off convention and allow them to be happy, that's not the point of what he's doing. His work is more a challenge to and a criticism of social norms if those norms are upheld at the expense of the characters you care about. It's harrowing, but powerful.
There are some powerful discussions of social convention here. Jude and Sue are intelligent, thinking people, and I think that makes their situation all the harder. If they allowed themselves to accept convention, their lives would be easier. If they weren't so honourable and didn't care so much, their lives would be easier. There are characters here who are far less moral than Jude and Sue, characters who take advantage of others for their own gain, and always seem to find their way out of trouble when they get into it. It's those characters getting along in life that sort of make you see how unfair Jude and Sue's situation is.
Although Jude is the main character, I'm most interested in Sue. I think, were she alive today, from some of what's said here, we might call her asexual, but not aromantic, and it's her desire to love without the physical connection that's so interesting, and also so tragic. Like in Tess of the D'Urbervilles, it's the woman who pays the greater price.
Like I said, I didn't love this, and I wouldn't read it again, but it is a really important book, and it's one that I think should be read.
It's pretty heartbreaking. Jude and Sue are way ahead of their time. They don't want to marry, because members of their family never have any luck with marriage, and because they don't feel like they should have to marry when they're happy as they are. They say a couple of times themselves that they were born too early. I think we have to intuit that Hardy was as well. He's very against convention for convention's sake, and he doesn't soften his criticisms of social norms, which is why, I suspect, there was such uproar about this book. His sympathy is all with Jude and Sue, but he keeps their plight realistic. As much as you might want him to throw off convention and allow them to be happy, that's not the point of what he's doing. His work is more a challenge to and a criticism of social norms if those norms are upheld at the expense of the characters you care about. It's harrowing, but powerful.
There are some powerful discussions of social convention here. Jude and Sue are intelligent, thinking people, and I think that makes their situation all the harder. If they allowed themselves to accept convention, their lives would be easier. If they weren't so honourable and didn't care so much, their lives would be easier. There are characters here who are far less moral than Jude and Sue, characters who take advantage of others for their own gain, and always seem to find their way out of trouble when they get into it. It's those characters getting along in life that sort of make you see how unfair Jude and Sue's situation is.
Although Jude is the main character, I'm most interested in Sue. I think, were she alive today, from some of what's said here, we might call her asexual, but not aromantic, and it's her desire to love without the physical connection that's so interesting, and also so tragic. Like in Tess of the D'Urbervilles, it's the woman who pays the greater price.
Like I said, I didn't love this, and I wouldn't read it again, but it is a really important book, and it's one that I think should be read.
This was a great book written way before it's time. I really enjoyed it, though Sue annoyed me a little. I would recommend it to anyone interested in reading the classics.
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
There was a TV show where someone said that some people just keep making the same old mistakes with the same people, because they are either frightened to do something new or too lazy to bother.
And that's what this book kept reminding of as I read it.
And that's what this book kept reminding of as I read it.
Este libro contiene una de las escenas más terribles que he leído en mi vida.
TW: suicidio infantil.
TW: suicidio infantil.
i've avoided thomas hardy for most of my life: first from ignorance, then on the advice of a few friends whose taste i trust. then i read an inspirational article in the tls this summer, on the relationship -- both personal and working -- between hardy and henry ibsen, which directed me towards jude the obscure. the description i found there led me to hope that the novel's themes (anticlericism, the emerging modern person, etc) would be right up my alley. so i took the dive.[return][return]i wish i hadn't. the themes i was looking for are present in this novel, but hardy's breathless, exuberant style was hard to handle. the first half of the book wasn't great, but i knew the good stuff -- jude's relationship with sue and their struggle with the external world -- was yet to come. it came, and kept coming until the book's final pages, but hardy's overbearing style (especially the dialog) made the final 200 pages, which should have been deeply tragic, a chore to read. i truly wanted this novel to be good, even great, but unfortunately that was not the case.[return][return]sorry, hardy: i've had enough of you, and won't try again, unless i have no choice.
Progressive takes on marriage that royally pissed off many Victorians. Got a bit melodramatic for me there at the end when weird Father Time kid went all...you know...
Another tragic love story by Hardy, but really enjoy his characters and writing.