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    Jude the Obscure
    Jude the Obscure
    Jude the Obscure
    Ebook602 pages8 hours

    Jude the Obscure

    By Thomas Hardy

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    The novel tells the story of Jude Fawley, a village stonemason who yearns to be a scholar at Christminster, a city modeled on Oxford, England. The novela also follows his earthy wife, Arabella, and his cousin, Sue. The elaborately structured plot dwells on subtle details and accidents lead to the characters' ruin while exploring many different themes.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherStart Publishing LLC
    Release dateJan 18, 2013
    ISBN9781625584328
    Author

    Thomas Hardy

    Thomas Hardy was born in 1840 in Dorchester, Dorset. He enrolled as a student in King’s College, London, but never felt at ease there, seeing himself as socially inferior. This preoccupation with society, particularly the declining rural society, featured heavily in Hardy’s novels, with many of his stories set in the fictional county of Wessex. Since his death in 1928, Hardy has been recognised as a significant poet, influencing The Movement poets in the 1950s and 1960s.

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    Reviews for Jude the Obscure

    4/5

    1,784 ratings63 reviews

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    • 5/5
      So tragic. Beautifully written.
    • 4/5
      Excellent. One of the very best endings I have ever read. Loved it.
    • 3/5
      I liked this one, but I liked Tess of the d'Urbervilles better.
    • 5/5
      i am shattered every time i read this, but every few years i have to come back for more.
    • 5/5
      Well, that was depressing.Beautifully written, scathing commentary by the author on religion and marriage in Victorian England... hard to believe Hardy wrote something so forward-thinking in this time period, and easy to see why it was so badly received then. The novel feels unflinchingly honest, brutal, and sad. Poor Sue. Poor Jude. If you like fun stories with happy endings, this is not the book you’re looking for.
    • 4/5
      A criticism of the institution of marriage, education and religion in England. Unflinching and brutal in places. Enjoyed this much more than expected.
    • 4/5
      This book was published in 1895 to such adverse criticism that Hardy didn't write another novel. Clearly it wasn't the done thing to question the institution of marriage, the influence of the church on society and to speak up for the poor. Never mind the (extremely mild) references to sex, which by the standards of the day, were considered too much. The story focuses on a young man with ambitions to better himself by striving to make it to a college at the university town of Christminster. However, the mistakes he and (his cousin / lover) Sue, make in their youth are not forgiven in the eyes of the community - wherever they go. Unable to free themselves, things begin to spiral.

      Usually regarded as the most depressing of Hardy's novels but it would be wrong to dismiss it on those terms as there is a lot going on in this book and it keeps you turning the pages. But yes, it does contain probably the most shocking scene I have ever read.
    • 4/5
      This Hardy novel tells the tale of Jude, a rural stonemason whose ambition is to better himself through the higher education of Christminster (Oxford), and his tragic love affair with his cousin Sue. Their relationship made for an enthralling read, particularly as it was very modern, daring and unconventional for it's time. Sue is a fabulously complex heroine who derives both feelings of admiration and frustration in the reader as she stays resolute to her convictions however misplaced, whilst Jude is a typical Hardy protagonist who makes you root for him the whole way through the novel.Unlike the other two Hardy's I've read to date, this one felt like it took quite a while to get going, and I would say it was only about halfway in that I got properly hooked. For that reason I'm deducting a star, but nonetheless it was a great read and the second half was a definite page-turner. I enjoy that Hardy gives such a real sense of place in rural England through the eyes of the lower and middle classes especially, and he's the grand master of social tragedy.4 stars - not my favourite Hardy so far, but another wonderful Wessex tale.
    • 5/5
      One of my favourite British Victorian classics. A compelling story on the so-much loved theme of a subject trying his utmost to overcome his humble roots (but failing in the process). Extremely well written and engaging - even for a 21st century mind.
    • 4/5
      I read this book during my senior year in college, so it's been a "few" years! I do remember being hooked on Thomas Hardy, and not because it was required reading!
    • 5/5
      I read this out of curiosity during my freshman year in college. When I approached my English 1A professor about doing a paper on it, she -- and I'm not joking here -- said, "Why would you want to write about a dead white male?" Taken aback, I dutifully bowed my pimpled head and submitted a paper on Ernest Gaines's A Gathering of Old Men.

      Not to take anything away from Gaines, who I ended up admiring in his way, but Ms. F? You can suck it.
    • 4/5
      2011, Blackstone Audiobooks, Read by Frederick Davidson“Remember 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 ...” (Pt 6, Ch 4)Jude Fawley, a stonemason raised by his working-class aunt, dreams of a university education at Christminster, having been inspired by schoolmaster, Richard Phillotson. But his plans are thwarted when he is tricked into marrying the rough-and-tumble Arabella. The marriage goes awry, not surprisingly, and Jude resolves to go to Christminster at last. Regrettably, when he attempts to enroll at the university, his plans are again stymied. Still, he is pleased to make the acquaintance of his cousin, Sue Bridehead. To no avail, Jude tries desperately not to fall in love with her; and he is devastated to learn that she has become engaged to Phillotson. However, this is another marriage doomed from its inception. Eventually, both Jude and Sue, who “seem to be one person split in two,” are divorced; but Sue does not wish to remarry. When Arabella reveals she has Jude’s son, Jude and Sue raise the boy together, along with two other children of their own, until tragedy – unspeakable tragedy – strikes. Sue, “creed-drunk” and manic with guilt, believes the tragedy to be her fate for having left Phillotson. Hopeless, they both eventually remarry their former spouses. Jude begs Sue to return to him, but she cannot: “No – let me make my last appeal. Listen to this! We've both remarried out of our senses. I was made drunk to do it. You were the same. I was gin-drunk; you were creed-drunk. Either form of intoxication takes away the nobler vision ... Let us then shake off our mistakes, and run away together!” (Pt 6, Ch 8)Jude the Obscure, while not my favourite of Hardy’s Wessex novels, is beautifully written, adorned with characters who’ll live on with me (as I’ve come to expect when reading Hardy) – and, oh, so tragic! Hardy uses his narrative superbly to expose the harm created by the absolutely unyielding social codes of his time as regards marriage, higher education, and social class. One of the things I love most about classics is their echoes for our modern times. We’ve certainly loosed the rigid thinking on marriage and divorce that Hardy called for – to a fault, I would argue. But I think we have a long way to go in making higher education more accessible and social mobility more achievable. I thoroughly enjoyed, and this audiobook edition is fabulously read by Frederick Davidson – great characters’ voices! Highly recommended!
    • 4/5
      Thomas Hardy doesn’t seem to be one of the more well-sung Victorian writers, particularly alongside the Brontë sisters and Dickens, but his text is just as full of semicolons and Victorian English slang as theirs are. This book in particular was the source of some trouble for him; his first wife, for example, thought that the book would be perceived as autobiographical and thus divorced him because she feared being considered his cousin—as Jude’s love was his cousin, Sue Bridehead—not to mention that it was wildly unpopular with critics of the time, who criticized it as being morally outrageous and instigated book burnings for it and the like.This is the sort of book that has to be read in fairly large chunks, because that’s about the only way that the story gets a reaction of anything more than, “Oh, well, nothing’s happening.” Due to that, I can’t fathom that this will be a popular novel with most modern readers, particularly those who might be attracted to it because of its perceived scandalous nature (or for the popularity of the Beatles song “Hey Jude”—they’re really very different).Coming from a less modern perspective, though, it’s extremely easy to see why this would have been extremely risqué subject material in 1895. For a population who covered their pianos with skirts so as not to show their inanimate legs, heavily implied premarital sex and living in sin with one’s cousin wouldn’t be acceptable at all, particularly when combined with various blasphemes of Jude’s.As a modern reader, I can’t say that I was too terribly interested in the book aside from the general idea of it. Had the book been published even about fifty years later, I could see where it would have been heavily edited to condense it from around four hundred pages in a trade paperback format to about half its size in something closer to a mass-market edition. Certain scenes would have to be emphasized to appeal to readers and others would have to be cut out completely. However, in spite of the slow-moving story, the writing is still interesting stylistically. When read, it seems vaguely more conversational than the usual Victorian novel, yet still fairly high-brow; as if someone were trying to describe a convoluted thesis paper in the simplest terms possible and not doing particularly well in that endeavor.This promises to hold interest for readers who can keep themselves in a Victorian mindset; for others, it wouldn’t be deemed particularly interesting or necessarily well worth reading. Still, the implications from the Victorian era are interesting enough for me to have read the whole thing through.
    • 4/5
      Thomas Hardy really knows how to turn a character's flaws and a few bad decisions into huge mistakes with drastic tragic results. Jude and his cousin Sue are in love with each other, but each marry other people (bad decision for both). They both leave their marriages and live together but decide to go against social convention and not marry. Living together was not an option in 19th Century England and Jude and Sue (and their children) are ostracized. What has become a bleak life gets much much worse as the whole tragic plot unfolds. This was a dark and very well written story and really reflects some of the moral values of that time. When the book was written, it received a harsh reception and was even called Jude the Obscene. This is Hardy's last novel and supposedly, the tough criticism made Hardy stop writing fiction for the last 32 years of his life.
    • 5/5
      From my first reading of The Return of the Native when I was a sophomore in high school I have been in love with the novels of Thomas Hardy. While I have not read them all, I have read his last, Jude the Obscure, and find solace in the tragic sadness of the life of Jude Fawley. I guess the aspect of his life that I admired the most was his desire to be a scholar and to go up to a great university. His desire fuels his personal study in preparation for this life. However, his own tragic nature, faults that he cannot overcome and some that he blames on others intervene to lead him in other directions.The sadness and tragedy of his life do not mean that this is not a novel that can be enjoyed. If you find the countryside of Hardy's Wessex an interesting world all of his stories are filled with wonders for the intrepid reader.
    • 1/5
      Wherein I express my eternal hatred of Jude the Obscure:

      Thomas Hardy is a fascinating guy and excellent writer, though depressing as hell. He liked to eavesdrop on his neighbors and then put them as characters in his novels, which is why said neighbors all hated him. He also had a huge chip on his shoulder because he wasn't allowed to divorce his wife to marry another woman, which has major significance in Jude because the two lovers who should end up together instead die alone and saddled to despicable spouses because they couldn't divorce and thus marry. Though not worrying about the fact that they were cousins.

      That said, I HATE Jude with a passion greater than the force of a gabillion suns imploding. It is the only book that has ever left me feeling so impotent with depression and rage that all I could do was lie in bed and watch as it sucked all of the happiness from my soul like a colossal Hoover. I might be overstating a tad, but it really is my most-hated book of all time forever and ever amen.

      If it were possible, I'd give it negative stars, I hate it that much.
    • 5/5
      When this book was first published there was such an outcry about the subject of the book that Hardy decided to stop writing fiction. What was the subject that created such opprobrium? A couple who could have married each other decided to forego the contract of marriage but live together and have children. It's hard to believe that an action that is almost commonplace now could excite such rage in 1896. Hardy was obviously ahead of his time.Jude Fawley was raised in the small village of Marygreen by his great-aunt after his parents died. His great-aunt was too poor to send him to school but he had gone to night school with Mr. Phillotson until that teacher decided to go off to try to get a degree at Christminster (a made up name for Oxford). Jude has a great passion for reading and conceives a notion to follow in the schoolmaster's footsteps. He manages to teach himself the rudiments of Latin and Greek but, realizing that he must have a way to earn money, also learns the trade of stone cutting. While he is still apprenticing he catches the attention of Arabella Donn, the daughter of a pig farmer. Arabella manages to entice Jude into her bed and then, claiming to be pregnant, into marriage. Both of them soon rue their marriage and Arabella goes off to Australia with her parents. Jude finally realizes his dream of going to Christminster. He also realizes his dream of meeting his cousin Susanna whose picture was in his great-aunt's house. When they meet they are drawn to each other but since Jude is still married he fights the attraction. When Susanna is dismissed from her employment Jude introduces her to schoolmaster Phillotson. Phillotson hires her as an assistant and soon is smitten by her.Phillotson and Susanna marry but Susanna is repulsed by the idea of physical love with him and asks him to let her go to live with Jude. Phillotson agrees, causing the local people to get him fired from the school. Susanna lives with Jude but does not share a bed with him. Finally the marriages between Phillotson and Susanna and between Jude and Arabella are dissolved but Susanna is reluctant to marry Jude for fear that the love they have will disappear with marriage. They pretend to get married and they do have children together. Then a tragedy occurs (as in most Hardy novels) and Jude and Susanna separate.Even though you know tragedy is coming it was still a shock when it occurs. No-one could read this book and not feel sorry for Jude and Susanna. Even Phillotson is a tragic figure and I felt badly for him. Arabella, on the other hand, is such a conniving, heartless woman that it seems strange that Jude would get caught by her. It is certainly not strange that the bloom goes off the rose of their marriage very quickly.Hardy shows his true feelings about marriage pretty clearly in this book. His wife, Emma, is said to have disapproved of Jude the Obscure. Hardy and Emma spent more and more time apart after its publication and Hardy started seeing other women. However, after Emma died Hardy apparently felt remorse and revisited places where they had been happy together.We have two more works by Hardy to read but they are short stories. I have a new appreciation for Hardy after reading all of his novels although it is hard to say that I have enjoyed them. Hardy, like the playwright Chekhov, isn't meant to be enjoyable. Instead they show us the human condition and let us draw our own conclusions.
    • 5/5
      What marks a great fiction writer, in my view, is this: you don't want to skip a single line. Not because it is an action packed thriller, but simply because it totally draws you in. Thomas Hardy's style and his phraseology are of an older pattern and might be a bit puzzling to a contemporary eye, not that easy to digest at first, but you persist, and after a few pages the old-fashioned turn of a phrase or an outdated word not only doesn't matter any more - it becomes essential to the writing. Lengthy, heart-rending, impassioned dialogues and soliloquies might seem a bit histrionic to a modern mind. But not unless you place yourself in that era; that's what I tried to do.In this novel, Hardy raises two essential questions: he points out that the desire to learn is classless, and, to an even greater detail, he questions the fairness and validity of the institution of marriage - in those days!...- which was totally unexpected, for me, at least: for, of course, there are prejudices about this even now (always will be) but to much smaller extent...Our Jude is torn between religious aspirations (which seem to be more equated to a desire for enlightenment and learning than actual longing for God) and love for a woman who is his soul-mate - his idealistic, whimsical, well-read, precocious Sue, whom he follows in mind and deed, himself being not as strong-willed as she, with whom he has such unique mutual understanding. And even here it's all unpredictable - the tragedy strikes and Sue's personality alters altogether. She erroneously decides that the tragedy is God's punishment for her hedonistic way of life (erroneous here as well - as her life was just driven by sober thinking, that's all). Jude, in resignation, calls himself "a paltry victim to the spirit of mental and social restlessness, that makes so many unhappy in these days". In frustration, in the end he is resigned to do carving on the stone walls of colleges he could never enter.Passionately written and at times very lyrical, Hardy captures his protagonist's mental agony to a most compelling extent. A very worthy read.
    • 4/5
      This was my second Hardy novel, following The Mayor of Casterbridge, which I believe contains more appealing characters and story lines. Nonetheless, Hardy's writing ability is superb, hence Jude the Obscure flows seamlessly throughout. Kudos also for Hardy's ending, which was superb.Highly recommended.
    • 4/5
      This is one of those books that takes you straight into another time and place. Hardy is such a vivid writer, you can feel and touch and smell and see across the places he describes.

      It is crushingly sad, but the truth of the situation is psychologically real and mature, born out of extreme frustration and despair at the social reality of the time, the limitations of class and poverty. He was angry, and his passion saturates the book. The dysfunctionality of the characters is all too familiar and believable, the self-deception, the misplaced loyalties, the character flaws they can't get past, the real experience of poverty and failure. How many people have you known who didn't or couldn't live up to their youthful dreams, never made use of their most obvious talents because of a lack of education, money, connections, resourcefulness, early parenthood?
    • 5/5
      I am definitely in the minority here, but I believe that "Jude the Obscure" is Hardy at his best. I read all of Hardy's novels in quick succession as a teenager - I believe this was the second or third I encountered. This novel contains some of the most vividly disturbing descriptions in any work of fiction (I remember reading one particularly shocking scene over and over in an attempt to replicate my first impression.), and convincingly questions several unshakable (at least in my mind at the time) Victorian conventions. I came away from the experience with a deep appreciation for Hardy's sensibilities.
    • 5/5
      If you have ever felt that it is all for naught - then read Hardy; he's in your corner. Take that, all you Pollyanna's! Existentialists know in our darkest hearts that we could all be Jude, the Obscure. That in many ways we ARE Jude, the Obscure. The romance between Jude and Sue reminds me of fan fiction for Moulin Rouge played out to it's terrible, not so Spectacular Spectacular end... they turn to drink, they are mean, they are alone. Why was it not enough for them to love, and be loved in return? SPOILER*** after the tragedy that did befall their family, I'm not sure that I could have managed to go on at all. We read these novels and comfort ourselves that at least we're not yet on our deathbed, asking for water. EMO[IMO] young people should be encouraged to read all Hardy's work - in fact, publishing houses - might I suggest for a new paperback run a cover with black eyed, scary scrawny youths in drab garb clutching each other against a menacing cathedral. I would buy it - again.
    • 4/5
      Jude the obtuse. Jude the feckless. Jude the petty. Jude the wet. If ,Far from the Madding Crowd is essentially anachronistic, and Tess very much of its moment, this book is kind of about what happens when those worlds come screeching together - like, in idyllic no-madding Wessex Jude and Arabella would have stuck by one another and he would have found his dream, and in a putative Sue she would have been the heroine and been spit out with all her stupid Greeks, but this is neither fantasy or cautionary tale - Hardy seems to be trying to be real with us, but he doesn't know what real is and ends up with characters that oscillate between purple harlequin-romance prose and clumsy sensationalism (he actually seems to seriously for real be arguing that Jude was brought low by drink, and that it was up to the women to stop him). Everybody in this book is a pointless waste sleepwaling their way through life, though, and I guess it's real and contemporary in that sense. Everybody comes out bad, but the women have to take responsibility for the men as well as themselves, and that allows the men to come out somewhat better, and that troubles me. Ugh, Victoria England!
    • 5/5
      My favorite book in the whole world, with the most realistic moral to any book life is rubbish and then it's just going to get much moch worse!
    • 3/5
      A sad tale lovingly rendered from boyhood to death. All the usual literary devices are there, but it is the moral questions: what is the true right and the true wrong, that stay with you. And it is the character's inability to find that true course and stay with it that is their undoing, by way of passion, greed, fear, or a certain class consciousness. Of course, no one is going to read this who isn't either already a Hardy fan or studying for a lit exam.
    • 4/5
      Encompasses Hardy's flaws and strengths. The narrator is phlegmatic and almost stilted, but somehow enjoyable to "listen" to. The plot has Hardy's hallmarks--the past coming back incessantly to haunt you, incredible coincidences, and forgotten individuals returning to the main character's life at key points.One key problem I had was that I don't think Jude's love for his cousin was ever properly explained. I could not figure out his infatuation with her.I don't know what it is about Hardy, because his plots are absurd, the writing does not seem particularly impressive, but somehow I find him fun and readable. This is the second one I've read by him, and would not hesitate to try another.
    • 4/5
      Oh my goodness! Could a book be any more depressing and lovely? In my opinion, this is one of his best. The plot is so real. He hides nothing and so, shows the grotesque along with the tender. You hope for Jude the entire book - that he will finally find happiness and realize his dreams. No matter what obstacles befall him throughout the story, you continue to hope from somewhere inside the human spirit. At the end, you are almost left breathless as you watch his love walk away and you know that a happy ending is not in order for him. I love that. Hardy doesn't lie to the reader. Sometimes, happy endings don't exist in reality. He explores this world of pain and sorrow wonderfully.
    • 2/5
      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.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.Sorry, Hardy: I've had enough of you, and won't try again, unless I have no choice.
    • 5/5
      This picture of an ordinary life in the 19th centuary was extremely contreversial when first published. The story concerns a rural man trying to better himself and become some more than he was born as. Despite his best efforts this leads to tragedy. A totally compelling tale beautifully set with much to say about class - many comparisions can stil be drawn with the present day.
    • 3/5
      Thomas Hardy first gives readers an admirable Jude, his dreams set on becoming a Christminster scholar.Next follows a set of unusual marriages, a horrific tragedy, and the interminable resultant peculiarities of Sue Brideheadand Jude's unswerving love for her which lead the tale into a comedy of errors. Too Strange Indeed."She little thinks I have out-Sued Sue in this - all in the last twelve hours!"

    Book preview

    Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy

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