Jude the Obscure, Hardy's final novel published in 1895, was a scandalous one—so scandalous, in fact, that Hardy decided to give up novel writing entirely and turn to poetry following its scathing reception. And it's no wonder his novel was met with outcries from the Victorian public: Hardy writes with sexual frankness and dares to portray the institution of marriage, the university system, and even the church in an unsympathetic light.
The story follows Jude Hawley, a dreamer with intellectual aspirations. Orphaned and living with his aunt in the country, he aspires to move to Christminster (a fictionalized Oxford) and make a career in the church. Jude embarks on a voracious mission of self-education, learning stonemasonry to support himself while teaching himself Latin and Greek. Yet his hopes are quickly derailed when he's seduced by the slatternly Arabella, daughter of a local pig farmer, and enters into a doomed marriage. Eventually separated from his wife (yet still legally bound to her), Jude manages to settle in Christminster, only to realize that his working-class background precludes his university dreams from ever coming to fruition. In Christminster, however, he reconnects with Phillotson, his old schoolmaster, and Sue Bridehead, his clever and charming cousin, who soon comes to govern the course of Jude's life.
Jude's life, or rather—the novel as a whole, is a tragic one, yet not quite convincingly tragic (the disastrous sequence of events that unfold are a bit unfathomable and clearly intended to illustrate an argument). That being said, I found myself rooting for Jude (an incredibly likable character with his gentle nature and wholesome ambitions) and would recommend this to modern readers as an embodiment of the cultural transition from the Victorian to the Modernist era.
Lastly, while reading this, I couldn't help but draw a comparison to one of my favorite novels, Of Human Bondage. Both are bildungsromans with protagonists that are uniquely sensitive, hungry for knowledge, and unfortunately doomed for disillusionment. I'm uniquely drawn to stories like this, likely why I enjoyed Jude so much.
Jude the Obscure, Hardy's final novel published in 1895, was a scandalous one—so scandalous, in fact, that Hardy decided to give up novel writing entirely and turn to poetry following its scathing reception. And it's no wonder his novel was met with outcries from the Victorian public: Hardy writes with sexual frankness and dares to portray the institution of marriage, the university system, and even the church in an unsympathetic light.
The story follows Jude Hawley, a dreamer with intellectual aspirations. Orphaned and living with his aunt in the country, he aspires to move to Christminster (a fictionalized Oxford) and make a career in the church. Jude embarks on a voracious mission of self-education, learning stonemasonry to support himself while teaching himself Latin and Greek. Yet his hopes are quickly derailed when he's seduced by the slatternly Arabella, daughter of a local pig farmer, and enters into a doomed marriage. Eventually separated from his wife (yet still legally bound to her), Jude manages to settle in Christminster, only to realize that his working-class background precludes his university dreams from ever coming to fruition. In Christminster, however, he reconnects with Phillotson, his old schoolmaster, and Sue Bridehead, his clever and charming cousin, who soon comes to govern the course of Jude's life.
Jude's life, or rather—the novel as a whole, is a tragic one, yet not quite convincingly tragic (the disastrous sequence of events that unfold are a bit unfathomable and clearly intended to illustrate an argument). That being said, I found myself rooting for Jude (an incredibly likable character with his gentle nature and wholesome ambitions) and would recommend this to modern readers as an embodiment of the cultural transition from the Victorian to the Modernist era.
Lastly, while reading this, I couldn't help but draw a comparison to one of my favorite novels, Of Human Bondage. Both are bildungsromans with protagonists that are uniquely sensitive, hungry for knowledge, and unfortunately doomed for disillusionment. I'm uniquely drawn to stories like this, likely why I enjoyed Jude so much.
Jude the Obscure, Hardy's final novel published in 1895, was a scandalous one—so scandalous, in fact, that Hardy decided to give up novel writing entirely and turn to poetry following its scathing reception. And it's no wonder his novel was met with outcries from the Victorian public: Hardy writes with sexual frankness and dares to portray the institution of marriage, the university system, and even the church in an unsympathetic light.
The story follows Jude Hawley, a dreamer with intellectual aspirations. Orphaned and living with his aunt in the country, he aspires to move to Christminster (a fictionalized Oxford) and make a career in the church. Jude embarks on a voracious mission of self-education, learning stonemasonry to support himself while teaching himself Latin and Greek. Yet his hopes are quickly derailed when he's seduced by the slatternly Arabella, daughter of a local pig farmer, and enters into a doomed marriage. Eventually separated from his wife (yet still legally bound to her), Jude manages to settle in Christminster, only to realize that his working-class background precludes his university dreams from ever coming to fruition. In Christminster, however, he reconnects with Phillotson, his old schoolmaster, and Sue Bridehead, his clever and charming cousin, who soon comes to govern the course of Jude's life.
Jude's life, or rather—the novel as a whole, is a tragic one, yet not quite convincingly tragic (the disastrous sequence of events that unfold are a bit unfathomable and clearly intended to illustrate an argument). That being said, I found myself rooting for Jude (an incredibly likable character with his gentle nature and wholesome ambitions) and would recommend this to modern readers as an embodiment of the cultural transition from the Victorian to the Modernist era.
Lastly, while reading this, I couldn't help but draw a comparison to one of my favorite novels, Of Human Bondage. Both are bildungsromans with protagonists that are uniquely sensitive, hungry for knowledge, and unfortunately doomed for disillusionment. I'm uniquely drawn to stories like this, likely why I enjoyed Jude so much.
Jude the Obscure, Hardy's final novel published in 1895, was a scandalous one—so scandalous, in fact, that Hardy decided to give up novel writing entirely and turn to poetry following its scathing reception. And it's no wonder his novel was met with outcries from the Victorian public: Hardy writes with sexual frankness and dares to portray the institution of marriage, the university system, and even the church in an unsympathetic light.
The story follows Jude Hawley, a dreamer with intellectual aspirations. Orphaned and living with his aunt in the country, he aspires to move to Christminster (a fictionalized Oxford) and make a career in the church. Jude embarks on a voracious mission of self-education, learning stonemasonry to support himself while teaching himself Latin and Greek. Yet his hopes are quickly derailed when he's seduced by the slatternly Arabella, daughter of a local pig farmer, and enters into a doomed marriage. Eventually separated from his wife (yet still legally bound to her), Jude manages to settle in Christminster, only to realize that his working-class background precludes his university dreams from ever coming to fruition. In Christminster, however, he reconnects with Phillotson, his old schoolmaster, and Sue Bridehead, his clever and charming cousin, who soon comes to govern the course of Jude's life.
Jude's life, or rather—the novel as a whole, is a tragic one, yet not quite convincingly tragic (the disastrous sequence of events that unfold are a bit unfathomable and clearly intended to illustrate an argument). That being said, I found myself rooting for Jude (an incredibly likable character with his gentle nature and wholesome ambitions) and would recommend this to modern readers as an embodiment of the cultural transition from the Victorian to the Modernist era.
Lastly, while reading this, I couldn't help but draw a comparison to one of my favorite novels, Of Human Bondage. Both are bildungsromans with protagonists that are uniquely sensitive, hungry for knowledge, and unfortunately doomed for disillusionment. I'm uniquely drawn to stories like this, likely why I enjoyed Jude so much.
Jude the Obscure, Hardy's final novel published in 1895, was a scandalous one—so scandalous, in fact, that Hardy decided to give up novel writing entirely and turn to poetry following its scathing reception. And it's no wonder his novel was met with outcries from the Victorian public: Hardy writes with sexual frankness and dares to portray the institution of marriage, the university system, and even the church in an unsympathetic light.
The story follows Jude Hawley, a dreamer with intellectual aspirations. Orphaned and living with his aunt in the country, he aspires to move to Christminster (a fictionalized Oxford) and make a career in the church. Jude embarks on a voracious mission of self-education, learning stonemasonry to support himself while teaching himself Latin and Greek. Yet his hopes are quickly derailed when he's seduced by the slatternly Arabella, daughter of a local pig farmer, and enters into a doomed marriage. Eventually separated from his wife (yet still legally bound to her), Jude manages to settle in Christminster, only to realize that his working-class background precludes his university dreams from ever coming to fruition. In Christminster, however, he reconnects with Phillotson, his old schoolmaster, and Sue Bridehead, his clever and charming cousin, who soon comes to govern the course of Jude's life.
Jude's life, or rather—the novel as a whole, is a tragic one, yet not quite convincingly tragic (the disastrous sequence of events that unfold are a bit unfathomable and clearly intended to illustrate an argument). That being said, I found myself rooting for Jude (an incredibly likable character with his gentle nature and wholesome ambitions) and would recommend this to modern readers as an embodiment of the cultural transition from the Victorian to the Modernist era.
Lastly, while reading this, I couldn't help but draw a comparison to one of my favorite novels, Of Human Bondage. Both are bildungsromans with protagonists that are uniquely sensitive, hungry for knowledge, and unfortunately doomed for disillusionment. I'm uniquely drawn to stories like this, likely why I enjoyed Jude so much.
