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3.7 AVERAGE
3.7 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Going to take a leaf from the introduction I was given to this book and note as a CW that this book features several suicides including child suicide and murder-suicide, and is notwithstanding that a very bleak story. I think it’s a worthwhile one but it’s definitely not for everyone.
What to say about Jude the Obscure. It’s definitely an emotionally heavy story, but I’ll start with what stuck out to me first which was the spectacular descriptions and prose. Dense but evocative, the text captures as well as I’ve ever seen a real visceral sense of place, with the descriptions often imparting by way of a certain thisness the feeling and history of a place by way of its appearance. Given how important place, and the allure of certain places, are in the heart of Jude (who starts as a starry eyed young kid who dreams of the spires of the copyright-compliant-oxbridge colleges he hears so much about) this is very effective to build feeling (especially in the first half).
However, he finds that his hopes are continually dashed due to circumstances which he is unable to overcome. As different characters flow into and out of his life and he flows into and out of social ruin on foot of earnest mistakes or moments of human weakness, he runs up against the social constraints of Edwardian England, a subject matter this book is heavily concerned with (something it has in common with Maurice).
The characters of Sue and Arabella in particular serve as compelling subjects of this world themselves while also acting upon (or causing actions upon) Jude in a cycle that, by the end, gave me a feeling of immense discomfort for all involved. Though they each say and do awful things to and about each other at different times through the story, I find it hard in my heart to hold any blame, as it feels as if the nature of the world they live in precludes any other outcome. They are just doomed people. This book really does work so well to get across that feeling without causing any (at least from my perspective) to become a kind of hate sink that we often see. The blame for all of this falls in a direction which is clear to see but not overbearingly lampshaded.
The plot, on a first read, does feel a bit aimless. Though there is the sense of a direction in the aspirations of Jude becoming a scholar which makes it feel as if the narrative is pursuing something, this peters out in a mirror image of how the same can be said of Jude’s life, which turns from one of hope to one of increasing despair. In that sense, the aimlessness feels intentional; the story is reflecting the diminishing horizons of this increasingly thwarted man, whose dreams shrink every day from scholar to layperson to bricklayer to human being who is allowed to love a person without shame. However, the story is ultimately driving to a point which is not clear until the end, and which (for me at least) helped contextualise much of what I had not “gotten” about it. No spoilers, but I’m sure you can put it together.
Emotion is very well done generally, but I can’t write this without drawing attention to the staggeringly evocative portrayal of grief, which is more well captured and more devastatingly realised here than in any other piece of media I’ve ever read or seen.
The social commentary in Jude has been picked apart by people who have done far closer readings than I have, and so while I am unable to add anything original I will say that it is very well woven into the characterisations and delivered superbly, but it goes beyond the text. There are several images, such as the pig or the repeated suicides, that strike one as the straining of an externality that has not been reckoned with, the muffled voice that is consciously unheard, and it creates such an uncomfortable feeling right when it needs to. At both of the… most sensitive moments of this book, the prose was able to pretty cleverly put me on edge all in advance, I was almost nauseous on one occasion right as the book was setting the table to deliver its punches. Though the content is shocking, it’s delivered with a foreboding feeling that almost primes you, which is a credit to the author Hardy.
Overall an excellent book. I definitely won’t pick it back up for a while, just on foot of the emotional impact, but it’s superbly crafted and (if you’re in the right headspace) a very invigorating read.
EDIT: Score changed 08/06/25 from 4 to 4.25.
What to say about Jude the Obscure. It’s definitely an emotionally heavy story, but I’ll start with what stuck out to me first which was the spectacular descriptions and prose. Dense but evocative, the text captures as well as I’ve ever seen a real visceral sense of place, with the descriptions often imparting by way of a certain thisness the feeling and history of a place by way of its appearance. Given how important place, and the allure of certain places, are in the heart of Jude (who starts as a starry eyed young kid who dreams of the spires of the copyright-compliant-oxbridge colleges he hears so much about) this is very effective to build feeling (especially in the first half).
However, he finds that his hopes are continually dashed due to circumstances which he is unable to overcome. As different characters flow into and out of his life and he flows into and out of social ruin on foot of earnest mistakes or moments of human weakness, he runs up against the social constraints of Edwardian England, a subject matter this book is heavily concerned with (something it has in common with Maurice).
The characters of Sue and Arabella in particular serve as compelling subjects of this world themselves while also acting upon (or causing actions upon) Jude in a cycle that, by the end, gave me a feeling of immense discomfort for all involved. Though they each say and do awful things to and about each other at different times through the story, I find it hard in my heart to hold any blame, as it feels as if the nature of the world they live in precludes any other outcome. They are just doomed people. This book really does work so well to get across that feeling without causing any (at least from my perspective) to become a kind of hate sink that we often see. The blame for all of this falls in a direction which is clear to see but not overbearingly lampshaded.
The plot, on a first read, does feel a bit aimless. Though there is the sense of a direction in the aspirations of Jude becoming a scholar which makes it feel as if the narrative is pursuing something, this peters out in a mirror image of how the same can be said of Jude’s life, which turns from one of hope to one of increasing despair. In that sense, the aimlessness feels intentional; the story is reflecting the diminishing horizons of this increasingly thwarted man, whose dreams shrink every day from scholar to layperson to bricklayer to human being who is allowed to love a person without shame. However, the story is ultimately driving to a point which is not clear until the end, and which (for me at least) helped contextualise much of what I had not “gotten” about it. No spoilers, but I’m sure you can put it together.
Emotion is very well done generally, but I can’t write this without drawing attention to the staggeringly evocative portrayal of grief, which is more well captured and more devastatingly realised here than in any other piece of media I’ve ever read or seen.
The social commentary in Jude has been picked apart by people who have done far closer readings than I have, and so while I am unable to add anything original I will say that it is very well woven into the characterisations and delivered superbly, but it goes beyond the text. There are several images, such as the pig or the repeated suicides, that strike one as the straining of an externality that has not been reckoned with, the muffled voice that is consciously unheard, and it creates such an uncomfortable feeling right when it needs to. At both of the… most sensitive moments of this book, the prose was able to pretty cleverly put me on edge all in advance, I was almost nauseous on one occasion right as the book was setting the table to deliver its punches. Though the content is shocking, it’s delivered with a foreboding feeling that almost primes you, which is a credit to the author Hardy.
Overall an excellent book. I definitely won’t pick it back up for a while, just on foot of the emotional impact, but it’s superbly crafted and (if you’re in the right headspace) a very invigorating read.
EDIT: Score changed 08/06/25 from 4 to 4.25.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Suicide
adventurous
emotional
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
What a long book. Despite its actual length it felt like it was neverending. None of the characters were particularly likeable, at no point are you wanting any of them to succeed or be together in what is meant to be a complicated love triangle, I’m not sure what compelled me to continue. When all is through, it is an interesting classic, but everyone sucks, particularly Sue. Nearing the end is a particularly harrowing and shocking scene, which feels quite incongruous with the rest of the novel, which bumbles along, in its fairly inconsequential will they/wont they way. I didn’t dislike this book, but I can see why it would be a tough read if not reading via audiobook.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death
Moderate: Incest, Toxic relationship
Minor: Infidelity, Terminal illness
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I surprise myself that good Victorian society received this obscure Jude with disdain, all gasping in outraged amazement in its tight corsets given this scandalous opus, which undermines all its immemorial certainties by vigorously questioning the validity of social conventions of the time: the place of well-born scholars in areas of education, the decorum of the clergy, the role of the family and above all, the institution of marriage, at the heart of this dark and provocative novel.
It is indeed very clever for Thomas Hardy to have orchestrated the heavy questioning through tragic romance because one would have to be made of stone not to be touched to the heart by the sad destiny of Jude, the simple countryman who dreamed of being a cleric. A monk who, having failed to rise above his condition through science and religion, lost himself in exercising a noble and pure love that he had wanted to free from secular laws.
If Hardy excels as much as in “Tess d’Urbervilles” in depicting the places, more urban than rural this time, it is above all through the density of the characters that he keeps us in the grip of this dark story:
Jude may be astonishingly naive (I admit in passing that had taken me to see a man play the role of innocence usually assigned to young girls in 19th-century novels), but he is a character with integrity. Such that one cannot help but shudder with empathy and anger at the injustices done to him.
I admire the subtlety of the author when he makes him the toy of the contradictory manipulations of his women: Sue, being of solar conviction, vibrant, versatile, all in spirit, as opposed to Arabella, the telluric, made of coarse clay, venal and poor in the soul - a final word for the character of Phillotson, Sue’s other husband (when I tell you that the marriage is having a rough time in this novel!) who demonstrates, at least for a time, openness of spirit in marital adversity quite astonishing for the time.
A dark novel which, if it transported me a little less than “Tess,” gave me the same pleasure of words as Thomas Hardy’s prose is beautiful and passionate.
It is indeed very clever for Thomas Hardy to have orchestrated the heavy questioning through tragic romance because one would have to be made of stone not to be touched to the heart by the sad destiny of Jude, the simple countryman who dreamed of being a cleric. A monk who, having failed to rise above his condition through science and religion, lost himself in exercising a noble and pure love that he had wanted to free from secular laws.
If Hardy excels as much as in “Tess d’Urbervilles” in depicting the places, more urban than rural this time, it is above all through the density of the characters that he keeps us in the grip of this dark story:
Jude may be astonishingly naive (I admit in passing that had taken me to see a man play the role of innocence usually assigned to young girls in 19th-century novels), but he is a character with integrity. Such that one cannot help but shudder with empathy and anger at the injustices done to him.
I admire the subtlety of the author when he makes him the toy of the contradictory manipulations of his women: Sue, being of solar conviction, vibrant, versatile, all in spirit, as opposed to Arabella, the telluric, made of coarse clay, venal and poor in the soul - a final word for the character of Phillotson, Sue’s other husband (when I tell you that the marriage is having a rough time in this novel!) who demonstrates, at least for a time, openness of spirit in marital adversity quite astonishing for the time.
A dark novel which, if it transported me a little less than “Tess,” gave me the same pleasure of words as Thomas Hardy’s prose is beautiful and passionate.
One of the bleakest novels I've read, yet the ideas referenced and characters (though more symbolic than realistic at times) make the depths of desolation worthwhile.
emotional
reflective
medium-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
challenging
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
This is maybe the saddest book I've ever read.
I have great respect for Thomas Hardy. The other book of his I've read is Tess of the D'Urbervilles, and like that one, this book is effectively a challenge to the social mores of his day. (So much so that, after the two books, the outcry drove him to write poetry instead of novels for the rest of his career.)
Jude the Obscure is sad from top to bottom. It's aboutaspirations that are never realized and naivete that is steadily crushed. It's also about societal pressure and ostracism. It's also about the harm that parents can do children without even realizing it.
As much as title character and his struggles compel me, Sue Bridehead compels me more. It would be somewhat bold in 2024 to write a story about a woman pressured into marriage despite a (euphemized, in this novel) considerable aversion to physical intimacy. It's at least 10 times as bold for a book from the 19th century.
This book isn't for everyone even today. It's cynical toward the Victorian idea of marriage in a way that even some modern readers would find uncomfortable. It asks whether self-sacrifice is always a good, and it questions whether real marriage and legal marriage are the same thing. I'm still not entirely sure how I feel about this book, especially with how depressing it was. But I know I'll be thinking about it for a long time.
I have great respect for Thomas Hardy. The other book of his I've read is Tess of the D'Urbervilles, and like that one, this book is effectively a challenge to the social mores of his day. (So much so that, after the two books, the outcry drove him to write poetry instead of novels for the rest of his career.)
Jude the Obscure is sad from top to bottom. It's about
As much as title character and his struggles compel me, Sue Bridehead compels me more. It would be somewhat bold in 2024 to write a story about a woman pressured into marriage despite a (euphemized, in this novel) considerable aversion to physical intimacy. It's at least 10 times as bold for a book from the 19th century.
This book isn't for everyone even today. It's cynical toward the Victorian idea of marriage in a way that even some modern readers would find uncomfortable. It asks whether self-sacrifice is always a good, and it questions whether real marriage and legal marriage are the same thing. I'm still not entirely sure how I feel about this book, especially with how depressing it was. But I know I'll be thinking about it for a long time.
dark
reflective
sad
fast-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