TBV (on hiatus)'s Reviews > Jude the Obscure

This was the second time that I read this novel, and this time around it impressed me a great deal more. The first time I was certainly devastated by the story, and the story remains devastating, but this time I read it for the superb writing and what a rewarding exercise this was.

Jude sets out with such lofty ideals, but he makes bad decisions and is ultimately his own worst enemy. The result is that he never achieves what he wants, but is always on the outside looking in. One mistake in particular spirals into a lifetime of misery and tragedy. This novel is as bleak as it gets and there is no silver lining to be seen.

Although his novel writing was at its peak it was the last novel that Hardy wrote; the novel was so badly received that he devoted the rest of his writing career to poetry. It’s not difficult to see why he got so much flack over this novel. It is very well written, but Victorians might have felt uncomfortable reading about the burning of religious writings, men and women cohabitating without being married, bigamy, adultery, separation and divorce, suicide, a woman with a greater intellect than her husband... Hardy tackles the institutions of religion and marriage, criticising religion and essentially asking whether an unhappy couple should remain married, or indeed whether a couple could live together decently without marriage. Nope, the Victorians didn't like that at all!