Steven Godin's Reviews > Jude the Obscure

3.5/5

To read of Tess or Jude? I was completely undecided, so took the action of a coin toss to decide for me.
Problem, had not a penny in my pocket, so whisked out a visa card and launched it across the room.

Frontside up - Tess
Backside up - Jude

Jude it was then...
(Don't worry Tess, you will have your day!)

He might have won my card toss but there is no winning in Hardy's final novel. A novel of such bleak and devastating intensity it's little wonder he finally called it a day.
Stirring up a feeling of failure and disappointment in life, the protagonist Jude Fawley is a scholarly chap who aspires from an early age to study in the university town of Christminster, situated in Hardy's fictional county of Wessex, become a clergyman, and distinguish himself in the world.

But two women would enter his life, Arabella and cousin Sue, to ruin everything.....

His tragic story moved me in such a way that was almost unbearable, too painful to comprehend, the light at the end of the tunnel didn't even exist.

Jude is brought up by his old Aunt and is devoted to a local schoolmaster, Phillotson, and dreams of following in his footsteps after he moves to the Oxford-like town of Christminster. He builds a fantasy life for himself, and believes this is based on his entire destiny, well, that is until the selfish Arabella Donn enters the frame, followed by unhappy Sue Bridehead. What happens next?, we have murder-suicide, failed marriage, a miscarriage, deathly illness and loss of faith, could a novel be more depressing.Hardy skewers the cruelty and hypocrisy of the way society works. He shows how, even in moments when men attempt to do something about the injustice of it all, they end up merely papering over the problem so that they don’t have to see what’s amiss.

I have to say it's very well written, and clearly see why Hardy is regarded so highly, you take all three central characters to heart, it's impossible not to, and his portrayal of the villages and countryside evokes such feelings within, however, I am unconvinced that Hardy’s critiques of Christianity and marriage are altogether just and reasonable, but do recognize the truth for love in the hearts of Sue and Jude, through their anguish and hopelessness, their anxiety and grief.
Of the other earthy characters in it, dare I say they actually made me laugh at times, but generally any cheerfulness is on a very small level to say the least.

As for Hardy’s career as a novelist, it’s a shame that he ended it so soon, he here proves himself to be one of the great creators of complex characters with emotionally devastating problems, grabbing the readers attention in a very short period of time, I didn't think it was the masterpiece some might see it as, but did leave a very strong impression on me....I even felt sorry for the Pig.