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Title: MAXnotes for Jude the Obscure (MAXnotes) by Thomas Hardy, Cythia C. Jones, Cynthia C. Jones ISBN: 0878910255 Publisher: Research & Education Assn Pub. Date: 1996 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $3.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.88
Rating: 3
Summary: A book about dreams, reality, and society
Comment: Jude The Obscure goes against the normal strain in its treatment of topics ranging from marriage, ambition, dreams, and class-society. The book takes shocking twists and turns, and even though the subjects are often depressing, the sheer shock of what has just happened makes you want to read more. Hardy's main character is Jude, a poor, parentless boy whose ambitions far exceed the restrictions his class would put on him. Throughout his childhood he pushed himself in the studies of academia, he would always be seen with Latin books while delivering bread to the villagers. Eventually, as Jude grows he decides to move to Chirstminister-Jude's dream starting from his very early days of youth. Christminister is the center of all academic pursuit and home to the greatest colleges of learning. We follow Jude's adventures there, along with all of his attempts to being admitted into one of these institutions. This is not easy for a young man who has no money or family status behind him. One of Jude's great battles is between his burning desire to achieve higher learning, and his weakness towards women which draw him away from this goal. The elements which Jude's eventual children present, make an outlandish story even stranger by their actions. Certainly Hardy intended the children to present us with some additional lessons to consider while contemplating the book.
The book was difficult for me to read, as mentioned in other reviews, the depressing subject matter and gloominess is not inherently an inviting thing. However, by unfolding the story as Hardy did, following the dreams and failures of young Jude, I learned some lessons that I do not think I could have otherwise. I received a strong personal impression in the importance of not giving up on yourself. That even if your opportunities are not optimal, or you environment is not perfect, that you still have the ability to reach for your dreams. And at all costs you should not give up on your dreams, or believe that you are not capable of accomplishing them. I also thought a lot about the acts the society would have us perform, which are not securely right. Having read the book forced me to reflect about the daily choices I make, how many of those are really mine, and how many are artificial restraints institutions would have me believe I must make.
While I have read more entertaining books, I would have to recommend this one because of the unique perspective it presents. Hardy message allows us to think about important issues in a light not often seen through.
Rating: 4
Summary: To Make You Think
Comment: Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy is an intriguing book. It is the story of a young man named Jude who aspires to be a religious preacher. In Jude's pursuit of this goal, he is faced with opposition.
Jude is a poor orphan boy who lives with this aunt. He works by day and studies by candle light to get into Christminster, a special college for theologians. All seems well until a voluptuous woman distracts one Sunday from his studying. Before he knows it, he is not longer studying and married to a woman he does not love.
Jude falls in love with another young woman. Society frowns on them for she belongs to another.
Through the credible characters of Jude, Arabella, Sue, and Philloston, Hardy shows the effect society has upon the weak individual. Some would have you believe Jude the Obscure is an awful book, but it is not. It is a book that makes you think. When I was done reading it, I though, "Now what has that got to do with anything?" It has a lot to do with everything. It covers the subjects of God, love, fate, and society. What Hardy has to say should be heard. I recommend reading Jude the Obscure.
Rating: 4
Summary: Despair within and without
Comment: Prior to reading Jude the Obscure, I had a smattering of knowledge about the religious uproar it caused upon publication, which led Hardy to abandon novels and focus merely on poetry. His work being denounced and burned by the churches, Hardy felt that if that was to be the treatment of his work, he would no longer produce the work.
Now that I have read the novel, and having attempted to place myself in the mindset of the later 19th century morals and ideals, I can begin to understand why such an uproar was raised.
First, the story...Jude Fawley, of poor and meager birth, aspires to academic greatness. When it is recommended to him that he stay on the 'blue collar' course he has begun, and not wish for more, he decides to educate himself, one day hoping that it will position him for greater things.
Jude enters into a hasty marriage, which by later standards would be described as a 'shotgun' wedding, which he eventually comes to regret, and ends. Enter his cousin Sue, who becomes the love of his life. Sue also ends an unsatisfactory first marriage, freeing herself to be with Jude, whom she loves as well.
What follows is a descent into tragedy and despair, with numerous twists and turns along the way. Not wanting to spoil them, I will not divulge.
However, the remainder of the novel touches upon many, many themes that amounted to raising of the ire of the church in response. Divorce; childbirth out of wedlock; loss of faith in God; questioning religious ideals and teachings; all these and more are present in the latter half of the novel, and so much more.
Upon finishing the book, I was left to question were these really Hardy's own feelings illustrated in his work, or simply a realization of a course of events for the characters, and not a reflection on the author's beliefs. That, however, bears further reading on the life of Thomas Hardy.
Where I find fault with the novel is in the characters, and it is merely a distaste with their actions. Sue, the heroine, spends far too much time vacillating about her love for Jude and her desire to marry him. When Jude tries to do the right thing by Sue, and respect her wishes, she claims he has 'given up too easily, and doesn't seem at all disappointed'. Jude's first wife, Arabella, displays an utterly selfish, self-absorbed personality, and was, for me, unlikeble, and unsympathetic. Jude, a character capable of learning Latin and Greek and engaging in other scholarly pursuits, seems completely naive in the ways of the world, and further seems blinded by a sense of duty over a sense of the rights and wrongs of others. His actions make him appear to have no regard for himself, until the very end.
Perhaps this is exactly as Hardy meant the characters to be seen, perhaps not. I did enjoy the book more than I expected to, and apparently more than others who have said to me "What on earth are you reading THAT for???". Hardy is not a comedy writer, and one should not expect a glamorous, cheerful, tidy ending, it does not exist here.
While not the greatest of classic novels I have read, I can certainly see why this one has been discussed for over 100 years. While Dickens peppered his stories with levity to break up the gloom, Hardy continues on a downward spiral, leaving his characters in despair within and without. I recommend it to readers who enjoy a good characterization of later 19th century life in England. But if you are looking for something to put a smile on your face, Hardy might not be for you.
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Title: Tess of the D'Urbervilles (Bantam Classic) by Thomas Hardy, Robert B. Heilman ISBN: 0553211684 Publisher: Bantam Classic and Loveswept Pub. Date: 1992 List Price(USD): $4.95 |
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Title: The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy ISBN: 0553210246 Publisher: Bantam Classic and Loveswept Pub. Date: 1994 List Price(USD): $5.99 |
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Title: Middlemarch (Penguin Classics) by George Eliot, Rosemary Ashton ISBN: 0140433880 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: 1994 List Price(USD): $9.95 |
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Title: Far from the Madding Crowd (Oxford World's Classics) by Thomas Hardy, Suzanne B. Falck-Yi ISBN: 019283391X Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: 1998 List Price(USD): $6.95 |
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Title: Hard Times by Charles Dickens, Robert D. Spector ISBN: 0553210165 Publisher: Bantam Classic and Loveswept Pub. Date: 1991 List Price(USD): $4.95 |
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