Jude the Obscure

Rating:
Summary: "Only a wall - but what a wall!"
Review: In "Jude the Obscure," Thomas Hardy masterfully balances his narrative between an incisive criticism of many of England's entrenched cultural institutions and a thoughtful portrait of the "love square" of Jude, Arabella, Sue, and Phillotson. Instead of being a bleak work of social realism in which each character is grotesquely locked into his or her social milieu, "Jude's" characters are passionate and articulate, despite the conditions that plague them. Additionally, Hardy does not offer the reader a mere snapshot of his characters' lives: each main character matures and struggles with his or her beliefs, thereby developing a vitality, which, again, I feel is unique for a novel that addresses such a breadth of social issues, from education, to alcoholism, to the conventions of marriage, to the sense of being thrown into the world. One of the best novels I have read in a while, "Jude the Obscure" has a mature, balanced vision that can be appreciated from a variety of perspectives, each reading possessing a singular fullness.

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Summary: A Vision of The Cruelty of our Haunted World
Review: One hates to start a book review with a commentary on his other reviewers....but, in this case, one has no choice: Will you AP English students who haven't even had a chance to take the class yet please cease your activities. I just finished reading too many reviews that sounded like Keanu Reeves monotoning, "Yo man, like,this book was a total downer. Go catch some waves instead." But, as they say, it's a free country and, if you want to make fools of yourselves, who am I really to stand in your way?

Hardy was a great lover of the poet Shelley. In fact, after Jude the obscure, he devoted the rest of his life to writing poetry based on his poetic model. In this book there are so many references (for those familiar with Shelley's poem Epipsychidion), and even one whole page particularly referencing the poem by name and giving quotes from it, that I was astounded that nobody even mentioned it. I just figured that it was you numbskull AP students again (sorry, guys, hang in there), but then I thought back to MY AP teacher and reconsidered. Even she would not have picked up on it. "Epipsychidion," in Greek, means "soulmate." It was one of Shelley's last poems before he committed suicide by drowning at the age of 30. I could cite several examples of it in Hardy's novel, but the last few paragraphs of the fifth section of the "At Shaston" chapter where the poem is mentioned by name and several lines from it are quoted will suffice. This book is really Shelley's poem in novelistic form. As such, it is to be praised mightily. "Epipsychidion" is essentially the story (though the narrative breaks down in parts) of the poet seeking his heavenly vision of love here on terra firma: To find that vision in Earthly form. What greater meaning on Earth is there (Shelley and Hardy would ask)? There are moments (fleeting) when Jude and his new love do seem to achieve this happiness envied by the gods. But all too soon they are thrown into despair, their dreams lieing in tatters around them, shattered by the conventions and prejudices of the world. Shelley's poem was never finished. His drowning of himself got in the way.....So what are we to gather from all this failed love, cruelty, murder,suicide and misery....THIS, that the world is a terribly unkind place for intellectual visionaries. They are the best and the brightest among us and their visions are REAL, the most beautiful things we can experience. But their attempts to implement them repeatedly result in cruel failure. The Judes of this world will never be successes, more often miserable failures....But in other worlds?...

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Summary: response to david lawrence
Review: Grow up. By the way, you're not a comedian.

Rating:
Summary: this book is AMAZING
Review: I can hardly put into words how much I loved this book. Granted, if you're looking for a light-hearted read with a happy ending, then this is not for you, but if you love to be moved deeply and if you love books that can move you to tears and send chills down your spine with their final sentences, then this is the book for you. I repeat: this book is wonderful beyond belief.

Rating:
Summary: jude the mundane
Review: thomas harding's overly descriptive writing style backfired in this would be entertaining novel. hardy should've realized that the harsh reception of the novel by the public was probably more because it's boring than because of the controversial text. hardy ruined a perfectly good plot with excessive description and annoying detail.

Rating:
Summary: Tragic tale of a hero thwarted by society
Review: I've read Tess before I read Jude, and reading the two of them in comparison has helped me understand Hardy's life philosophy a little better. As a piece of literature I think most would agree that Tess is a much better read, in style, subtlety, plot and character development, etc. Jude, however, is certainly worth everyone's while. I think the most telling point in the novel is when Jude goes to meet the composer of the beautiful hymn he's been singing in the church choir, and finds out that the composer is just as worldly and materialistic as anyone else. Jude is a romantic, sensitive, passionate man searching for a pure and natural beauty in a world that demands one to deny their natural instincts in exchange for money, status, and respectability. His tragedy, however, is not as keen as Tess's: Tess's was purely determined by fate and could by no means be considered her "fault," whereas Jude's, it seems to me, could have been preventable from the start had he not succumbed to a whimsical impulse.

"Jude" is one of the most vitriolic and direct attacks against the institutions of religion and matrimony that I have ever come across. The theme of a "natural spouse" as opposed to the "societal/religious spouse" is one much propagated by Hardy, and that is very much obvious in "Jude." The conflict between the two puts Jude in a very interesting dilemma, around which the plot centers. In short, "Jude" is a very intense look at the ever-debated clash of the natural and the societal.

Rating:
Summary: Lost souls
Review: It's harder to see why such a fuss was kicked up over this novel. But its power is still intact, and the book I belive probably deserves another reading in order to truly appreciate all its greatness. Hardy was a writer ahead of his time. His outlook remains quite modern. His world is one where God either is indifferent or absent, and men are left at the mercy of society and nature, neither of which go out of their way to be kind. Both Jude and Sue are deep enough and have enough stature to be genuinely heroic characters. At the same time you feel they are so realistic in their personalities and aspirations that they probably existed in the thousands, and people like them are still around today--Jude with his longing for a decent education that is never fulfilled, Sue with her modern neuroticism. They are ahead of their time as well, and they end up at the mercy of the social constrictions and prejudices of it. There are no real villains or evil people in the novel--Hardy's vision is sharp enough to realize that the roots of the problems that make life miserable for people lie deeper than at an individual level: that is why this book was so hated, and still gets bad marks from some. What I felt in reading this book was a feeling that Hardy was describing life as it often really is--full of squashed hopes, undeserved suffering, and cruel twists of fate. His vision is certainly dark, but it is a needed corrective. Hardy as a writer manages to be eloquent and clumsy at the same time, and I wasn't moved by the book as much as I thought I would be.(Perhaps on second reading I will) But I greatly admire the inner strength and nerve it took to write this book and hold his convictions. Hardy was not afraid to throw up his hands at the more meaningless moments of existence and say "That's how the world is! What can you do?" At the same time, the love he had for his characters, and the tenacity he had and gave them, ensured that they would still strive, and try to live their lives on their own terms...because in the end that is all any of us can do. "Ripeness is all."

Rating:
Summary: One of the great ones.
Review: As are Hardy's other books, Jude the Obscure is not an "easy read." Appreciating Hardy's work requires a little work and the ability to pay attention and to think a little along the way. But the effort pays off. Jude the Obscure is a great book about the human condition, at least as it exists for many people. Like other Hardy characters, Jude Fawley makes a mistake early in his life and continues to pay the price until the day he dies. He commits an act of folly that seals his doom, and nothing he can do can make it right. This would be merely sad or melodramatic were if not for the fact that Jude is a truly good man with truly good intentions. It is this that makes his story truly tragic. Not only is he trapped by the consequences of his early act of foolishness, but he is also trapped and eventually dragged down by the conventions of a society that is more concerned with status and class than with character and ability and more devoted to mindless tradition than to a considered morality. Most of what can be said of Jude also be said of his love, Sue Bridehead, although I found her to be a less believable and sympathetic character. I was surprised by the frankness with which Hardy deals with sexuality in 1895, and I can understand now the furor this book apparently caused in Britain and America upon publication. Hardy is a writer of great power and insight. He also knows how to build a great story. And he is a novelist of ideas. He has his faults, of course. At his worst, he is wordy, obscure, and pedantic. But at his best, he is one of the most emotionally moving of writers. At times his books flash briliantly with passion. At times, he is heartbreaking. Jude the Obscure is a novel that no lover of fine writing and a great story can afford to miss. The novel has haunted me for weeks since I read it, and it probably will for a long time.

Rating:
Summary: 13 BOOKS IN SEARCH OF AN AUTHOR
Review: (This is a response to Ms. Kate Wiggin's review of JUDE THE OBSCURE in the form of a review of that same book.)

Ms. Wiggin,

While I firmly believe that your review of HAMLET improved upon my own and deeply appreciate the courage you displayed in directly praising me, I can offer no commendation for your critique-or should I say, exaltation-of JUDE. After reading your review for the ninth time, I have come to the conclusion that it is some strange species of bilge that could easily be classified as unscrupulous toxic waste. You, Ms. Wiggin, strike me as a very dull-witted little girl whose only whetstone probably exists as a rather blockheaded father. I am about to begin my own discussion of JUDE and thus will no longer linger over your writing. Your entire review is comprised of nonsensical cant that both contradicts itself and makes ridiculous, irrelevant references. It deserves no further attention.

JUDE THE OBSCURE

This, Hardy's final novel, is in no respect a masterpiece. I cannot imagine a novel in the entire Western Canon that is any worse. All of Hardy's other 13 novels, though exceedingly melancholy, seem to have been written by another person: as with Shakespeare and EDWARD III, Hardy's mark of authorship is absent. Possibly they were written secretly by Hardy's wife, cousin, brother, sister, psychiatrist-who knows?

Jude's pursuit and relationship with Arabella throughout a substantial part of the first half of the novel is utterly revolting. His attempt to educate himself is comically hopeless. His love for his cousin Sue is a scene from America's Ozarks. When Hardy tries to make a grand statement on marital intercourse/surplus procreation through Father Time's acts of murder and suicide "because we are too menny," it comes across as more grotesque than tragic. In the final pages of the book, the record for the greatest amount of melodrama in one novel is attained. The following is the novel's atrocious finale (speaking of Sue's condition following the death of Jude):

'Well-poor thing, 'tis to be believed she's found forgiveness somewhere! She said she had found peace!'

'She may swear that on her knees to the holy cross upon her necklace till she's hoarse, but it won't be true!' said Arabella. 'She's never found peace since she left his arms, and never will again till she's as he is now!'

SUMMATION

If you share my opinion of this novel/recognize its abundance of faults (i.e., the words), there is no need to despise it. Oscar Wilde once said, "One must have a heart of stone to read the death of Little Nell [from Dickens's OLD CURIOSITY SHOP] without laughing." The same should be said of JUDE.

Rating:
Summary: Dismal and unreadable
Review: I liked Tess of the D'Urbervilles a lot. I could not finish Jude the Obscure--not just because it was sad and tragic. I mean after awhile I got tired of reading about and feeling sorry for Jude and Sue who make most of their problems for themselves and then whine about them. I would describe this book as "agonizing." And not nearly as good as Hardy's other books that I have read. It is true that I was not able to finish the book (I got about half way through) so this may discredit my evaluation.