false 50798 150 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. 2011241 book 1895 Jude the Obscure total:5892|5:1871|4:1971|3:1327|2:465|1:258| 5892 22408 7973 578 4 8 false false Thu Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Wed Sep 05 17:51:11 -0700 2007 Wed Sep 05 17:57:16 -0700 2007
I can't fault Hardy's tal...more...]]> 3 3 false false Sun Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 1996 Mon Jul 21 11:57:03 -0700 2008 Mon Jul 21 12:23:49 -0700 2008 Jude the Obscure would be an ideal book for secondary school pupils struggling with their book reports. See, the way Hardy wrote the novel, the reader is not required to think for himself about what th...more...]]> 3 4 false false Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2001 Wed Nov 14 13:45:26 -0800 2007 Thu Apr 03 20:13:37 -0700 2008 more...]]> 2 2 false false Mon Jul 02 08:06:29 -0700 2007 Mon Jul 02 08:06:29 -0700 2007 more...]]> 5 3 false false Sat Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2000 Mon Jul 23 13:35:03 -0700 2007 Mon Jul 23 13:40:42 -0700 2007 more...]]> 5 4 false false Sun Apr 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Mon Dec 31 13:16:53 -0800 2007 Mon Dec 31 13:20:57 -0800 2007 more...]]> 4 2 false false Sun Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2004 Tue Oct 02 14:50:02 -0700 2007 Tue Oct 02 15:54:33 -0700 2007 more...]]> 4 1 false false Wed Nov 26 14:09:55 -0800 2008 Tue Dec 16 12:48:46 -0800 2008
I found it validating an...more...]]> 4 1 false false Fri Sep 05 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Wed Jun 18 20:53:40 -0700 2008 Fri Sep 12 05:54:10 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 2 false false Sat Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 1994 Fri Aug 03 13:12:30 -0700 2007 Sat Aug 04 16:34:50 -0700 2007 Bleak is the entire point of Jude the Obscure. In fact, most of Thomas Hardy's works can be summed up with that same word.

Characters in Hardy's books make bad decisions. As a reader, you "watch" them make bad deci...more...]]> 4 1 false false Sat Dec 06 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Mon Aug 18 21:28:53 -0700 2008 Wed Dec 10 01:01:39 -0800 2008 1
I felt misled about this book. It wasn't nearly as dark and depressing as it claimed to be, and as such was disappointing to me. Also it seemed to be less about Jude's struggles to get into a university (indeed he seemed to give up rather easily to my mind) as promised by t...more...]]> 0 1 false false Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 1990 Wed Sep 19 06:05:27 -0700 2007 Wed Sep 19 06:21:03 -0700 2007 more...]]> 5 1 false false Wed Mar 19 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sat Mar 15 09:10:41 -0700 2008 Wed Mar 19 06:16:52 -0700 2008
Eight years later, I have...more...]]> 4 1 false false Wed Jul 23 15:02:09 -0700 2008 Tue Sep 09 22:28:49 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 1 false false Fri Aug 29 04:17:04 -0700 2008 Fri Aug 29 04:23:55 -0700 2008
I'm only about thirty pages in, but so...more...]]> 1 1 false false Sun Aug 26 20:12:47 -0700 2007 Tue May 27 13:54:01 -0700 2008 more...]]> 1 1 false false Tue Apr 24 06:51:50 -0700 2007 Tue Apr 24 06:54:29 -0700 2007 more...]]> 4 1 false false Sat Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2005 Fri Nov 16 08:45:20 -0800 2007 Fri Nov 16 08:47:17 -0800 2007
Something did.

I finished ...more...]]> 2 1 false false Thu Nov 20 14:27:47 -0800 2008 Wed Nov 26 06:41:35 -0800 2008 3 1 false false Mon Dec 31 22:17:29 -0800 2007 Mon Dec 31 22:23:40 -0800 2007 more...]]>