The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne

By Brian Moore

A timeless classic dealing with the complexity and hardships of relationships, addiction and faith.

Judith Hearne, a Catholic middle-aged spinster, moves into yet another bed-sit in Belfast. A socially isolated woman of modest means, she teaches piano to a handful of students to pass the day. Her only social activity is tea with the O'Neill family, who secretly dread her weekly visits.

Judith soon meets wealthy James Madden and fantasises about marrying this lively, debonair man. But Madden sees her in an entirely different light, as a potential investor in a business proposal. On realising that her feelings are not reciprocated, she turns to an old addiction – alcohol. Having confessed her problems to an indifferent priest, she soon loses her faith and binges further. She wonders what place there is for her in a world that so values family ties and faith, both of which she is without.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins UK
• Release date: Sep 27, 2012
• ISBN: 9780007405909

Brian Moore

Brian Moore, whom Graham Greene called his ‘favourite living novelist’, was born in Belfast in 1921. He emigrated to Canada in 1948, where he became a journalist and adopted Canadian citizenship. He spent some time in New York before settling in California.

Reviews for The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne

[oldblack-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is a sad story of an Irish woman of the early 20th century who is let down by every element of society: the church and its priests, men, friends, the medical system. First published in 1955, I suspect it would have been a radical condemnation of traditional Irish society at that time. It's interesting to compare to Sally Rooney's popular 21st century depiction of Irish society and see that although many things have changed (notably the role of the church), women still have a long way to go to genuine equality.

[over.the.edge · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

This book is utterly ridiculous.....

[anniejanicki · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

What a good book. A sympathetic portrait of a single woman, on the edge where single meets spinster. It makes you aware of how a person's perception of themself, and their world, can differ so much from how others see them. And as a single woman, can you read this and not think, "There but for the grace of God, go I."?

[gayla.bassham · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I adored this closely observed character study. By the end, my heart broke for Judith Hearne, which was not what I expected from the first two chapters.

[sigmundfraud · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I just read this spectacular masterpiece for the second time. The setting is Ireland and the context is the cultural history of contemporary Ireland. It is a very moving sensitive story so good that I reread it.

[stillatim · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I'm willing to accept that I just wasn't in the mood for this; everyone seems to love the book to death except me. I thought it was decent, but given the choice between this and Richard Yates, I'll take Yates, who picks up most of the same themes (see: title of this book, except for the religious faith crisis type thing) but just puts his sentences together more effectively. It may also be that I just dislike novels that take place by and large in boarding houses; I was similarly unmoved by Hamilton's Slaves of Solitude. Although that, too, might have been a mood thing. I suspect I should have read Judith when I read Slaves and vice versa. Such are the contingencies that govern book reviews. Anyway, this is smart, compassionate and ironic all at once. Worth a shot.

[nmele_4 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This early Brian Moore novel was difficult to read because of his moving depiction of a lonely woman whose betrayal by a relative she never betrayed has left her poor and isolated.

[whirled_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Life has not been kind to Judith Hearne. Having spent her prime years caring for a demented aunt, she finds herself living alone in a Belfast boarding house, virtually friendless, with her Catholic faith crumbling whilst a growing fondness for alcohol blooms in its place. Her last tenuous chance at romance appears to lie with middle-aged bounder James Madden, a fellow boarder who befriends the naive spinster he imagines is an educated woman of considerable means. All this seems like a recipe for disaster and it is; Judith Hearne's modest life quickly unravels in compelling detail.I don't think I've ever read a more eloquent portrait of a woman in crisis than this one. Many male authors seem to stumble blindly when writing about women, yet Brian Moore has created a complex character who is by turns irritating and heartbreaking. The book is bleak, focusing as it does on the private, almost shameful nature of loneliness and doubt. But The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne is also a masterpiece.

[pdebolt_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Brian Moore has written a haunting, poignant novel about the loneliness of Judith Hearne, whose thin facade of gentility masks a wounded soul searching for a connection to other people and to God. The desperation of her lonely life is palpable, and the only kindness she experiences is from someone whose rich, full life is a reminder of the emptiness in her own life. Her hope of finding marriage is dashed when the man in question realizes she isn't someone with money to fund his pipe dreams. Her collapse is total and very painful to witness. Judith Hearne will serve as a reminder that compassion is the least we all owe to other people.

[shuffy2_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Is there more to Judith Hearne than meets the eye? How does she handle her life of solitude? Plain Judith Hearne spent most of her adult life taking care of her aunt, who has now died and left her on her own, something Judith has wanted for a long time. She has her freedom but by 1950’s standards she is a spinster destined to face the rest of her life alone, a prospect she abhors and fears. Npw living in a boarding house Judith meets Mr. Madden, an Irishman returned home after living in America most of his life, who takes an interest in Judith. Judith is used to life not turning out as planned; her refined upbringing prohibits her from speaking up so she deals with the disappointments in her own way. Will her true self break free and show itself to the world and what, if any, repercussions will there be?Absorbing and disheartening! I could not put it down; my heart broke for Judith Hearne- I wanted to reach out, simultaneously wanting to shake her and comfort her character all at the same time. Don’t read if you are looking for an uplifting account. As a “spinster” I felt her pain. Overall, I was not happy with the way the author ended the novel---felt like I was left hanging a bit -- but still glad I read it!

[laura400 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This was an interesting, vivid, harsh and somewhat depressing book. Poor Judith Hearne. I can see why John Banville has praised the book.I really think praymont's review, below, is spot on.

[markfinl · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Judith Hearne is lonely old maid who lives in a Belfast boarding house. She has no family, is only intermittently employed, and stretches a meager savings as much as humanly possible just to make sure she can provide herself with the necessities. Her only pleasures in life are attending church services and visiting the O'Neills, family friends who dread her weekly visit. It should be noted that this is the high point of Judith's life in the novel. The book chronicles her descent from this very modest summit. It is an exquisitely sad story. No one is really to blame for Judith's circumstance; it's an unhappy convergence of nature, nurture and society that combine to seal Judith's fate. The book reads as if it were the novelization of the story of Eleanor Rigby. I don't think Paul McCartney was influenced either consciously or unconsciously by this story, but the parallels are striking.

[anniehidalgo · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

What a good book. A sympathetic portrait of a single woman, on the edge where single meets spinster. It makes you aware of how a person's perception of themself, and their world, can differ so much from how others see them. And as a single woman, can you read this and not think, "There but for the grace of God, go I."?

[praymont_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Brian Moore published The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne (originally called simply Judith Hearne), in 1955 after he had left Belfast for Montreal. For this book Moore won the Author's Club First Novel Award. The book appears on the Guardian's list of 1000 books 'everyone must read'. A 1988 movie of the same name starred Maggie Smith and Bob Hoskins. Graham Greene apparently called Moore his 'favourite living novelist' (though I can't find the source of this quotation). Moore here plumbs the turbid soul of a desperately lonely woman who's on the verge of becoming an old spinster. She's done in by the repressive mores of her culture, which she has internalized and of which she's largely uncritical. (Moore based Hearne loosely on one of his mother's friends, Mary Judith Keogh.) The other character whose thoughts are probed at length is James Madden, Hearne's last chance at a husband. He, too, has outlived his dreams and (like Hearne) drifts though his days in fear and frustration, which are relieved only by vices that promise short-term relief but long-term doom.Moore's story is marred by some heavy-handed symbols (an empty church, e.g.), and I grew impatient with the protracted torments to which the author subjected poor Judy Hearne. Nevertheless, the book is a thorough and disturbing study of the corrosion and eventual demolition of a life by loneliness.Hearne seeks refuge from her isolation in weekly visits with a happy and prosperous family whose patriarch she has known since childhood. She half knows that the family members generally dread her visits, but she goes to them anyway out of sheer desperation for some human contact. These portions of the book are pretty painful, for Moore makes it clear that the family members don't take Hearne seriously as a person. They treat her more as an ongoing bad joke.This dismissiveness is echoed near the end of the story by the other tenants in Hearne's rooming house. Hearne drops from even this sad little society after a night of drinking that leaves her singing and talking to herself for hours on end in her room. After that, her housemates stop taking her seriously. They see her as a 'nutter' who needs to be evicted. As in her visits with the happy family, then, she's surrounded by people who don't respect her as a somewhat rational agent roughly on a par with themselves. Instead of recognizing her as a person, they see her as a nuisance and soon-to-be outcast.In the end, Hearne is deposited in a residential hospital, where her interactions are largely with people who are, well, paid to interact with her and the other patients. In a cruel paradox, her life is now marked by not only a dearth of meaningful relationships but also a lack of privacy.

[raflynn_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Very sad, solitary central character, searching without success for lasting romance. Challenges her faith, goes temporarly crazy, returns to faith because nothing else offers at least some comfort, even if not credible.