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ada_elisabeth 's review for:
Jude the Obscure
by Thomas Hardy
dark
emotional
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
"'There is something external to us which says, 'You shan't!' First it said, 'You shan't learn!' Then it said, 'You shan't labor!' Now it says, 'You shan't love.''"
THE REVIEW:
If I had a nickel for every time I read an incredibly long, incredibly sad book about a man named Jude, I'd have two nickels, which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice.
Did I labor over this book for two months just so I could open a review with that line? <s> Maybe. </s> Yes. Yes, I did. Do I regret it? Actually, I kind of do. It's been a hot minute since I read something this flat out depressing. Even the other really long, really sad book about a guy named Jude had some redeeming qualities, but this was just straight up bleak. Not a single good thing happened. Jude didn't successfully learn, labor, or love, and yet he somehow managed to suffer greatly.
I knew within three pages of beginning this book that it was going to be a depressing train wreck. I was not wrong. Jude is suicidal, tired, lonely, and doomed to a life of never fulfilling his (very reasonable) dreams. While this may have been a critique of Victorian society, I find that it's still applicable to today's world. More than a hundred years have gone by and people are still suicidal, tired, lonely, a doomed to lives of misery and boredom.
I feel as though I know Jude Fawley very well now, having spent two months with him and his horrible, sad existence. This book takes place over a relatively long span of time, and yet Jude's circumstances never manage to be anything better than mediocre. As a child, he's sent to live with his aunt in a small town outside the bigger city of Christminster. Jude's only dream in life is to study at the college in Christminster and become a scholar, which never ends up panning out for him. His biggest inspiration is his teacher, Philloston, who moves to Christminster to study in the very beginning of the book. Within pages, Jude has already established himself as naive, lonely, and, in his own words, "ridiculously affectionate." These traits are seen countless times throughout the book as his life ebbs in and out of various cities and towns and he is abandoned by his various wives and compatriots.
The truly devastating part of this book comes near the end, when Jude and his second wife, Sue, find their children dead by suicide. Sue's heart-wrenching reaction was traumatizing and the quotes from that particular chapter made me feel physically unwell. Hardy's control of language is admirable, and tension and grief in that scene were palpable. It was horrible. Would not recommend. The quote at the top of the review is from this scene, and while it was Sue speaking about her own experiences, it sums up Jude's even more.
I saw one review that was like "read this if you're looking for that final push towards suicide" and I could not agree more. Jude the Obscure went from being incredibly bleak for around three hundred and thirty pages to being flat-out depressing for the next hundred, and I would not recommend this book to people who want to be happy. As a side note, it did serve as a lovely segue back into✨ Sad Book Season✨, which I have decided should now last from February-November. I have a lot more to say about Jude the Obscure, but I also have a life to live and I really don't have another month to waste on this book, so I'll give it a 3.75/5 for being way too long, which I hated, but also way too devastating, which I loved.
(I'll leave you with my favorite quotes just for fun.)
"As you got older, and felt yourself to be at the centre of your time, and not at a point in its circumference, as you had felt when you were little, you were seized with a sort of shuddering, he perceived."
"And it is said that what a woman shrinks from-- in the early days of her marriage-- she shakes down to with comfortable indifference in half a dozen years. But that is much like saying that the amputation of a limb is no affliction, since a person gets comfortably accustomed to the use of a wooden leg or arm in the course of time!"
[some others that I can't seem to recall now. I'll add them if I ever remember.]
THE REVIEW:
If I had a nickel for every time I read an incredibly long, incredibly sad book about a man named Jude, I'd have two nickels, which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice.
Did I labor over this book for two months just so I could open a review with that line? <s> Maybe. </s> Yes. Yes, I did. Do I regret it? Actually, I kind of do. It's been a hot minute since I read something this flat out depressing. Even the other really long, really sad book about a guy named Jude had some redeeming qualities, but this was just straight up bleak. Not a single good thing happened. Jude didn't successfully learn, labor, or love, and yet he somehow managed to suffer greatly.
I knew within three pages of beginning this book that it was going to be a depressing train wreck. I was not wrong. Jude is suicidal, tired, lonely, and doomed to a life of never fulfilling his (very reasonable) dreams. While this may have been a critique of Victorian society, I find that it's still applicable to today's world. More than a hundred years have gone by and people are still suicidal, tired, lonely, a doomed to lives of misery and boredom.
I feel as though I know Jude Fawley very well now, having spent two months with him and his horrible, sad existence. This book takes place over a relatively long span of time, and yet Jude's circumstances never manage to be anything better than mediocre. As a child, he's sent to live with his aunt in a small town outside the bigger city of Christminster. Jude's only dream in life is to study at the college in Christminster and become a scholar,
The truly devastating part of this book comes near the end, when
I saw one review that was like "read this if you're looking for that final push towards suicide" and I could not agree more. Jude the Obscure went from being incredibly bleak for around three hundred and thirty pages to being flat-out depressing for the next hundred, and I would not recommend this book to people who want to be happy. As a side note, it did serve as a lovely segue back into✨ Sad Book Season✨, which I have decided should now last from February-November. I have a lot more to say about Jude the Obscure, but I also have a life to live and I really don't have another month to waste on this book, so I'll give it a 3.75/5 for being way too long, which I hated, but also way too devastating, which I loved.
(I'll leave you with my favorite quotes just for fun.)
"As you got older, and felt yourself to be at the centre of your time, and not at a point in its circumference, as you had felt when you were little, you were seized with a sort of shuddering, he perceived."
"And it is said that what a woman shrinks from-- in the early days of her marriage-- she shakes down to with comfortable indifference in half a dozen years. But that is much like saying that the amputation of a limb is no affliction, since a person gets comfortably accustomed to the use of a wooden leg or arm in the course of time!"
[some others that I can't seem to recall now. I'll add them if I ever remember.]
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death
Moderate: Animal cruelty