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Jude the Obscure (Dover Thrift Editions)
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Manufacturer: Dover Publications
Author: Thomas Hardy
Publisher: Dover Publications
Average Customer Rating:
Our Price: $5.00
You Save: $ ( % )
Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Dover Publications
Author: Thomas Hardy
Publisher: Dover Publications
Average Customer Rating:
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Jude the Obscure (Dover Thrift Editions) Description
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.8
EAN: 9780486452432
ISBN: 0486452433
Label: Dover Publications
Manufacturer: Dover Publications
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 336
Publication Date: 2006-12-01
Publisher: Dover Publications
Studio: Dover Publications
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.8
EAN: 9780486452432
ISBN: 0486452433
Label: Dover Publications
Manufacturer: Dover Publications
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 336
Publication Date: 2006-12-01
Publisher: Dover Publications
Studio: Dover Publications
Editorial Review of Jude the Obscure (Dover Thrift Editions)
Hardy's masterpiece traces a poor stonemason's ill-fated romance with his free-spirited cousin. No Victorian institution is spared — marriage, religion, education — and the outrage following publication led the embittered author to renounce fiction. Modern critics hail this novel as a pioneering work of feminism and socialist thought.
Customer Reviews of Jude the Obscure (Dover Thrift Editions)
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Unforgettable story and characters
Review: Jude's life is short and miserable. His aspiration of becoming a scholar is thwarted when he is trapped into marriage by Arabella. But even without Arabella's manipulations, he is trapped in time, born many years too soon for the reality, instead of only the dream, that someone of a working class background can attend an institution of higher learning.
He remains a stonemason and eventually unites with Sue Bridehead, not in a legal marriage, but one of heart and mind. Jude is ahead of his time, again, for this type of union to be socially accepted. Their rejection of a marriage contract turn them in social outcasts and their hardships culminate into a horrific event that affects Sue profoundly and causes the separation between her and Jude.
For me, Sue is the character who leaves the most lasting impression in Jude the Obscure, even though it's not in a wholly positive sense. She is indecisive and at times so annoying that I clenched my teeth as I was reading. But the scene where she jumps out the window when Phillotson accidentally enters her bedroom is priceless and forever ingrained in my mind. She cannot force herself to accept him as a husband. Others, less free-spirited and emotional than Sue, might have been resigned or indifferent to being the wife of a dull, older man. Not Sue. Her spirit rebels because she wants to be with Jude, until she is shocked and overwhelmed by grief. Then she transforms into someone who can overrule her own will and submit herself to Phillotson. In the end she is crushed and as dead as Jude in his coffin.
Jude the Obscure is bleak, but also surprisingly fast-paced with good dialogue and memorable characters. If the book had been more favorably received by critics upon its publication Thomas Hardy would almost certainly have continued writing novels. But he was discouraged by the cries of outrage and turned his attention to writing poetry. We'll never know what great books he might have written but the masterpiece Jude the Obscure is an exclamation point as a last novel.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Truly a Masterpiece!
Review: Thomas Hardy has accomplished a miracle with this novel. He has written a novel equal in the strength of the ideas, the beauty of the writing, and the compelling nature of the story. If he had only done one of the three well, the book would be worth reading, but having done all three so beautifully has resulted in a masterpiece.
I first read Jude about 10 years ago and recently re-read it. I was even more delighted after reading it again, and plan to read it a third time.
Some of my literary compatriots have been put-off by what they characterize as stiff language in Hardy in general and Jude in particular, but I would encourage anyone to persevere...after a few chapters, it wears-off and then you will thoroughly enjoy the reading!
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Jude.....
Review: Thomas Hardy... I wonder what his life must have been like in order for him to write such a tragic book. For those considering it, this book is a romantic tragedy of the highest degree. If your looking for a happily ever after, look elsewhere. But if your looking to run the gamut of human experience in books, this is one you will want to take up, I've never read a book that has taken such a sentimental turn for the worse than this. I hope this helps.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: WHY I LOVE THIS BOOK
Review: I love this book because it finally drove Thomas Hardy out of the novel writing business.
I don't know if Hardy was a sadist or a masochist or just chronically depressed and loved to spread the mood around, but either way he had no sense of humor.
However, after exposing myself to TESS OF THE D'URBERVILLES and introducing myself to THE MAYOR OF CASTERBRIDGE and finding them both miserable company, I thought I'd give Thomas Hardy one more try with the story of a stonemason who has pretentions to learning.
JUDE THE OBSCURE, set in class-structured nineteenth century England, seems to be the model for modern American liberals. They don't seem to think people are capable of rising above "their station" or leaving "their class" the way Jude is thwarted in seeking advancement through learning.
There is one element in the book that rings true. After more than a quarter-century of association with a major American university -- as a student, and a graduate student, and an employee -- I can confirm that the attitudes of the professors of "Christminster" (a thinly-disguised Oxford) have remained constant. Their "class-consciousness" consists of political and intellectual high mindedness but they still think they're better than ordinary people.
The story: Jude wants to become an educated reverend gentleman but since he's self-educated he can't get his foot in the door of the University. He seems religious but it's only skin deep; the first woman who tries to seduce him succeeds without much effort. After faking a pregnancy she forces him to marry her. But Jude, adopting the attitude of his profs, always thinks he's better than she is (and he may be right) and the marriage isn't particularly successful. After they have a disagreement over the proper way to slaughter a pig Jude leaves her and his home town he makes his way to Christminster, where he works as a stonemason, drinks to excess, and meets up with his cousin Sue. Sue is a total nutcase. Her behavior is inexplicable. Though she keeps trying to present herself as liberated and modern, she really has severe sexual hangups. Like his first wife, Arabella, Sue toys with Jude. She keeps him dangling on the end of a chain, and jerking him to her when she needs to talk to someone. She has practically promised herself to another man, but she has some sort of breakdown when Jude finally tells her he married someone else a while back . . . so she rushes into a marriage that she doesn't like, then chucks it (apparently because it has to be consummated) and shacks up with Jude and their burgeoning family, and things really go downhill from there. I won't give away the ending. It's not worth it. But when you read it if you take it seriously you'll just want to go hang yourself up on a meathook.
All I can say is that Hardy strikes me as a shallow man with little understanding of the history and theology he disdains. His understanding of the Middle Ages -- or at least the understanding he puts in the mouths of his characters -- shows an amazing lack of erudition, even for his time. All he seems to have is "common knowledge" (which in this circumstance ranks with "old wives' tales")
SPOILER ALERT
Earlier, I said Hardy didn't have a sense of humor. I was wrong in a way, because, after being appalled by the horrors of TESS and almost sickened by THE MAYOR, I found myself giggling in JUDE every time things took a turn for the worse (here's a hint: in Hardy things never take a turn for the better). By the time I reached the suicidal child and his garrotted siblings, I was positively howling with laughter. Hardy, that stolid Victorian writer, needs finally to go the way of Grand Guignol and Victorian melodrama of the "you must pay the rent" variety. When something so achingly sad makes you laugh until the tears stand in your eyes you know it's a thing that's had its day.
Maybe that's why the thing (I'll forever think of this book as "the thing") garnered bad reviews -- it was simply too absurdly sad even then. Anyway, when people didn't fawn all over his new book Hardy got all hurty and took his ball and went home and devoted himself to plays and poetry. He never wrote another novel and for that we may be truly thankful.
I do some writing myself and thought of doing a satire of Hardy books, a la COLD COMFORT FARM, but I won't. A satire is no good unless someone knows its object, and no one gives a ding-dong for Hardy any more, and why should they? Oh, except for Hardy fans; and considering they actually eat this rubbish with a spoon, they must be dour, prim, humorless persons who wouldn't get a joke if it bit them on the shin.
All I can add is: Hey, Jude, take a sad song and make it better.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Still holds up today
Review: This book is a classic about the effect on people's lives when they choose to engage in behavior that is totally against society's norms.
Story: The story itself consists of a number of vignettes. Each vignette is compelling and shows how the characters mature (or don't) well. The pacing dragged out a bit, but that is to be expected in a character driven story such as this one.
Characters: This is where I am most conflicted. Hardy does a masterful job with the characters of Jude and Sue. Despite having many faults and maddening defects, I was able to feel sympathy for each character as the story progressed. Hardy's secondary characters are less impressive. Arabella is a stock villain, tempting and trapping Jude with no remorse. Phillotson is a stereotypical martyr character. If Phillotson and Arabella would have had some of the same complexities as Jude and Sue, I would have enjoyed this book a great deal more.
This is a very depressing book. Jude's outlook is bleak at the beginning, and it never really improves. Still, it is a commentary on society and living in sin that is still applicable to today's world.
Review Summary: Unforgettable story and characters
Review: Jude's life is short and miserable. His aspiration of becoming a scholar is thwarted when he is trapped into marriage by Arabella. But even without Arabella's manipulations, he is trapped in time, born many years too soon for the reality, instead of only the dream, that someone of a working class background can attend an institution of higher learning.
He remains a stonemason and eventually unites with Sue Bridehead, not in a legal marriage, but one of heart and mind. Jude is ahead of his time, again, for this type of union to be socially accepted. Their rejection of a marriage contract turn them in social outcasts and their hardships culminate into a horrific event that affects Sue profoundly and causes the separation between her and Jude.
For me, Sue is the character who leaves the most lasting impression in Jude the Obscure, even though it's not in a wholly positive sense. She is indecisive and at times so annoying that I clenched my teeth as I was reading. But the scene where she jumps out the window when Phillotson accidentally enters her bedroom is priceless and forever ingrained in my mind. She cannot force herself to accept him as a husband. Others, less free-spirited and emotional than Sue, might have been resigned or indifferent to being the wife of a dull, older man. Not Sue. Her spirit rebels because she wants to be with Jude, until she is shocked and overwhelmed by grief. Then she transforms into someone who can overrule her own will and submit herself to Phillotson. In the end she is crushed and as dead as Jude in his coffin.
Jude the Obscure is bleak, but also surprisingly fast-paced with good dialogue and memorable characters. If the book had been more favorably received by critics upon its publication Thomas Hardy would almost certainly have continued writing novels. But he was discouraged by the cries of outrage and turned his attention to writing poetry. We'll never know what great books he might have written but the masterpiece Jude the Obscure is an exclamation point as a last novel.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Truly a Masterpiece!
Review: Thomas Hardy has accomplished a miracle with this novel. He has written a novel equal in the strength of the ideas, the beauty of the writing, and the compelling nature of the story. If he had only done one of the three well, the book would be worth reading, but having done all three so beautifully has resulted in a masterpiece.
I first read Jude about 10 years ago and recently re-read it. I was even more delighted after reading it again, and plan to read it a third time.
Some of my literary compatriots have been put-off by what they characterize as stiff language in Hardy in general and Jude in particular, but I would encourage anyone to persevere...after a few chapters, it wears-off and then you will thoroughly enjoy the reading!
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Jude.....
Review: Thomas Hardy... I wonder what his life must have been like in order for him to write such a tragic book. For those considering it, this book is a romantic tragedy of the highest degree. If your looking for a happily ever after, look elsewhere. But if your looking to run the gamut of human experience in books, this is one you will want to take up, I've never read a book that has taken such a sentimental turn for the worse than this. I hope this helps.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: WHY I LOVE THIS BOOK
Review: I love this book because it finally drove Thomas Hardy out of the novel writing business.
I don't know if Hardy was a sadist or a masochist or just chronically depressed and loved to spread the mood around, but either way he had no sense of humor.
However, after exposing myself to TESS OF THE D'URBERVILLES and introducing myself to THE MAYOR OF CASTERBRIDGE and finding them both miserable company, I thought I'd give Thomas Hardy one more try with the story of a stonemason who has pretentions to learning.
JUDE THE OBSCURE, set in class-structured nineteenth century England, seems to be the model for modern American liberals. They don't seem to think people are capable of rising above "their station" or leaving "their class" the way Jude is thwarted in seeking advancement through learning.
There is one element in the book that rings true. After more than a quarter-century of association with a major American university -- as a student, and a graduate student, and an employee -- I can confirm that the attitudes of the professors of "Christminster" (a thinly-disguised Oxford) have remained constant. Their "class-consciousness" consists of political and intellectual high mindedness but they still think they're better than ordinary people.
The story: Jude wants to become an educated reverend gentleman but since he's self-educated he can't get his foot in the door of the University. He seems religious but it's only skin deep; the first woman who tries to seduce him succeeds without much effort. After faking a pregnancy she forces him to marry her. But Jude, adopting the attitude of his profs, always thinks he's better than she is (and he may be right) and the marriage isn't particularly successful. After they have a disagreement over the proper way to slaughter a pig Jude leaves her and his home town he makes his way to Christminster, where he works as a stonemason, drinks to excess, and meets up with his cousin Sue. Sue is a total nutcase. Her behavior is inexplicable. Though she keeps trying to present herself as liberated and modern, she really has severe sexual hangups. Like his first wife, Arabella, Sue toys with Jude. She keeps him dangling on the end of a chain, and jerking him to her when she needs to talk to someone. She has practically promised herself to another man, but she has some sort of breakdown when Jude finally tells her he married someone else a while back . . . so she rushes into a marriage that she doesn't like, then chucks it (apparently because it has to be consummated) and shacks up with Jude and their burgeoning family, and things really go downhill from there. I won't give away the ending. It's not worth it. But when you read it if you take it seriously you'll just want to go hang yourself up on a meathook.
All I can say is that Hardy strikes me as a shallow man with little understanding of the history and theology he disdains. His understanding of the Middle Ages -- or at least the understanding he puts in the mouths of his characters -- shows an amazing lack of erudition, even for his time. All he seems to have is "common knowledge" (which in this circumstance ranks with "old wives' tales")
SPOILER ALERT
Earlier, I said Hardy didn't have a sense of humor. I was wrong in a way, because, after being appalled by the horrors of TESS and almost sickened by THE MAYOR, I found myself giggling in JUDE every time things took a turn for the worse (here's a hint: in Hardy things never take a turn for the better). By the time I reached the suicidal child and his garrotted siblings, I was positively howling with laughter. Hardy, that stolid Victorian writer, needs finally to go the way of Grand Guignol and Victorian melodrama of the "you must pay the rent" variety. When something so achingly sad makes you laugh until the tears stand in your eyes you know it's a thing that's had its day.
Maybe that's why the thing (I'll forever think of this book as "the thing") garnered bad reviews -- it was simply too absurdly sad even then. Anyway, when people didn't fawn all over his new book Hardy got all hurty and took his ball and went home and devoted himself to plays and poetry. He never wrote another novel and for that we may be truly thankful.
I do some writing myself and thought of doing a satire of Hardy books, a la COLD COMFORT FARM, but I won't. A satire is no good unless someone knows its object, and no one gives a ding-dong for Hardy any more, and why should they? Oh, except for Hardy fans; and considering they actually eat this rubbish with a spoon, they must be dour, prim, humorless persons who wouldn't get a joke if it bit them on the shin.
All I can add is: Hey, Jude, take a sad song and make it better.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Still holds up today
Review: This book is a classic about the effect on people's lives when they choose to engage in behavior that is totally against society's norms.
Story: The story itself consists of a number of vignettes. Each vignette is compelling and shows how the characters mature (or don't) well. The pacing dragged out a bit, but that is to be expected in a character driven story such as this one.
Characters: This is where I am most conflicted. Hardy does a masterful job with the characters of Jude and Sue. Despite having many faults and maddening defects, I was able to feel sympathy for each character as the story progressed. Hardy's secondary characters are less impressive. Arabella is a stock villain, tempting and trapping Jude with no remorse. Phillotson is a stereotypical martyr character. If Phillotson and Arabella would have had some of the same complexities as Jude and Sue, I would have enjoyed this book a great deal more.
This is a very depressing book. Jude's outlook is bleak at the beginning, and it never really improves. Still, it is a commentary on society and living in sin that is still applicable to today's world.