Reviews - Jude the Obscure

989 reviews for:

Jude the Obscure

Thomas Hardy

3.7 AVERAGE

gertymae's review against another edition

5.0

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

mariaklingsheim's review against another edition

4.25

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

jisimpson's review against another edition

3.0

challenging dark emotional sad slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

jitka_c's review against another edition

4.0

Tahle knížka je na svou dobu tak pokroková, až se divím, že Hardyho po jejím vydání neupálili.

Je to příběh o tom, že slovo ‘nejde’ rozhodně ‘existuje’, protože sebevětší snaha prostě nenahradí třídní rozdíly. A když jsou vaše sny tak obrovské jako jsou vaše možnosti malé, možná vás to nevyhnutelně předurčuje k životu v bolesti.

Ale není to jen knížka o tom, jak beznadějné je šplhání po třídním žebříčku. Hardy se strefuje i do náboženství a společenských dogmat a ukazuje, jak společnost sama sebe obklopuje mřížemi. Ušetřen není ani institut manželství, který je sám o sobě prázdnou nádobou a naplnění mu může dát jen opravdový a upřímný vztah těch, kdo do nej vstupují.

Vlastně je to celý o nespravedlnosti, bolesti a neustálé vnitřní rozervanosti - a to až do poslední třetiny, kdy to se všemi postavami jde ještě víc do háje než jsem považovala za možné a místo ‘hrozný’ to začne být ‘příšerně strašlivý’.

Zkrátka, jak jste asi pochopili, není to veselá kniha. Ale je to dobrá kniha a jestli občas rádi sáhnete po klasice, Juda je rozhodně dobrá volba.

Jen zkuste poslední třetinu nečíst na veřejnosti. (Mně by bývalo takový varování pomohlo.)

brg101010's review against another edition

3.25

dark sad slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

irinithebookworm's review against another edition

5.0

dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

The book was ahead of its time. I am in loss of words. Need a day to process this novel.

Instead of saying how sharp Hardy is and how impeccably he writes and how mind-blown I am, I have written some of the *MANY* passages that fully

developed my frontal lobe at the age 19.

“If we are happy as we are, what does it matter to anybody?”

“That’s what some woman fell to see, and instead of protesting against the conditions they protest against the man, the other victim; just as a woman in a crowd will abuse the man who crashes against her, when he is only the helpless transmitter of the pressure put up on him.”

“If I had ended by becoming like one of these gentlemen in red and black that we saw dropping in here by now, everybody would have said: "See how wise that young man was, to follow the bent of his nature!" But having ended no better than I began they say: "See what a fool that fellow was in following a freak of his fancy!"

-> As a state school educated student in the 21st century and President of a social mobility society at my university which is full of private school students in the UK, I do see the dichotomy of the privileges, in the upbringing, and the opportunities between state school students and private school students. The fact that Hardy accurately described what I am going through as an unrepresented student so many years ago through Jude, made me even more obsessed with him. How forward-thinking, how shrewd and how talented this man was!

“I should like the flowers very, very much, if I didn't keep on thinking they'd be all withered in a few days!”

-> Oh how gruesome! How unexpected! How mentally disturbed and troubled this kid was! Sent a shiver down my spine. Tragedy.

Litcharts analysis: Hardy clearly doesn’t have much hope for the next generation. By portraying Little Father Time’s murder-suicide as inevitable, Hardy shows how the injustices of the present lead to horror in the future.

“…that the best and greatest among mankind are those who do themselves no worldly good. Every successful man is more or less a selfish man. The devoted fail ... "Charity seeketh not her own."

madihareads's review against another edition

5.0

Coming back to say this might be my top fave classic.

Everyone warned me this book was heartbreaking, gut wrenching, sad beyond words. (You may be thinking, and you still read it? Yes. Of course? Come on now) The warnings I got were very much correct - this book was deeply sad, but surprisingly, not in the sucker punching, shocking way I expected it would be.
Hardy harbours a quiet melancholy that broods rhe story of Jude and his many ambitions in life, which in turn are stunted by numerous obstacles - the most prominent being that of the relationships he has. The ending of this book shocked me to my core but in such a still and frankly eerie manner, that it really sat with me, and I had to reflect on Jude’s whole life, thinking why did we get there? (No spoilers)

The reason I initially picked up Jude the Obscure was because I heard someone mark out the similarities between this Jude and the much loved Jude St. Francis of A Little Life. Well, I now see the vision and it’s definitely interesting to see how Jude from A Little Life is a modern example of the tragedies of Jude the Obscure.

Also idk why but I love the name - Jude the Obscure!

Yet another fictional Jude that will randomly pop into my head for the rest of my life and haunt my soul