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Jude the Obscure

3.76 of 5 stars 3.76 · rating details · 25,097 ratings · 1,351 reviews

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.

Paperback, 489 pages

Published April 28th 1994 by Penguin Books (first published 1895)

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Sep 15, 2012 karen rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: littry-fiction, favorites

i have just discovered betterbooktitles.com, so i am including this, but it is a total spoiler, so be warned.

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jude the obscure is one of my favorite books of all time. and reading the biography of him now is making me very antsy to reread this. it used to be part of my "summer reruns" ritual; to reread all my favorites each and every summer. then i got old and realized that kind of thing was a luxury i would have to give up, or risk missing out on all kinds of books...more

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Jan 22, 2011 Eric rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: people who feel better when they compare their life to Jude's.

Shelves: literature

If you like sunshine, unicorns, and lollipops, then you probably won't like this book. If it's raining and you're vaguely manic depressive or if you just want to sit around for a few hours and feel sorry for someone other than yourself - well, Jude's your man.

I can't fault Hardy's talents at controlling the mood. Even before it became horrendously horrendous, there was a pall of doom that hung over everything that poor Jude touched.

33 likes · like · see review

Nov 22, 2012 [P] rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

'Wait, is that a pig's penis you've just slung at me?' should never be a thought that runs through a man's head. But, should it indeed ever come to pass, here's a little piece of advice: any woman who wields a porker's pecker in order to get your attention is someone you ought to avoid. Now, if only Jude had displayed the same good sense.

I found this pretty hilarious, despite its grim reputation. But then I find unrelenting disaster funny [in literature, I mean; I don't sit at home watching the...more

11 likes · like · see review

Dec 18, 2011 Jasmine rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: british

so... right... um...

this book is basically what you would get if madame bovary gave birth to werther and then he went out on a walk with thomas mann, that is if none of them had a sense of humor... basically then we have what would be left of madame bovary if you took out the funny. unless I just somehow missed everything funny in the book, but that seems basically impossible.

Reading this book is kind of like picking up a stick and poking a corpse with it to try to get the corpse to wake up. I...more

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May 30, 2011 Crystal rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: only those who have read other Hardy novels

Shelves: fiction

So if you are a literary person and have read Thomas Hardy before, then go ahead and read this one. If you haven’t read any other Thomas Hardy works, PLEASE don’t start with this one. I took a class on Thomas Hardy literature because it was taught by one of my favorite professors. I visited “Thomas Hardy” country in the southern westerly region of England because it was an opportunity to travel abroad. I’ve read several of Hardy’s novels – but none were quite as depressing and dark as this one....more

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Jul 21, 2008 Martine rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: people in need of some good old-fashioned tragedy

Shelves: british, film, nineteenth-century, psychological-drama

If it weren't for the fact that it's somewhat whiny and depressing (and that's putting it mildly), 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 the characters are like and why they suffer the misfortunes they do. Hardy spells it all out for him, mostly by having the characters analysing themselves and each other ad nauseam. Thus the reader is t...more If it weren't for the fact that it's somewhat whiny and depressing (and that's putting it mildly), 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 the characters are like and why they suffer the misfortunes they do. Hardy spells it all out for him, mostly by having the characters analysing themselves and each other ad nauseam. Thus the reader is told that the ambitious stone mason Jude is a 'purblind, simple creature' whose scandalous relationship with his free-spirited cousin Sure is doomed to fail because Sue is an 'ethereal, fine-nerved, sensitive girl, quite unfitted by temperament and instinct to fulfil the conditions of the matrimonial relation ... possibly with scarce any man' (subtle foreshadowing, that) and who, for all her modern ideas, doesn't 'have the courage of [her] views', as she helpfully informs Jude (and the reader) in one of the many dialogues in which her character is discussed at length. Hardy spends so much time spelling out his protagonists' psychological quirks (usually in the form of dialogue) that it borders on the absurd. As a lazy twenty-something reader, I loved this tendency of his (it even struck me as very good characterisation), but when I reread the book last weekend, I wanted to find myself a time machine, head for 1893 and hand Hardy the OED page on which the concept of subtlety is explained, as well as a plaque reminding him to 'Show, Don't Tell', to be put over his writing desk and memorised afresh before each new chapter. Seriously. The characterisation is that overblown.

Hardy's tendency to beat his reader over the head with psychological insights is not the only thing about Jude the Obscure which would make a modern creative writing teacher reach for his red pen. The author also makes the mistake of adding a child to the story who talks and behaves as no other child has ever been known to. His unlikely inclusion and the even more unlikely resolution to his storyline are so preposterously overdramatic and sentimental that they ruin what could have been a very good story despite all its flaws. For make no mistake, there's a good story hidden in there somewhere. There's some genuine tragedy in this tale about a man who keeps making the same mistakes, a woman who is emotionally incapable of love, and a cruel society which will neither allow them to make their dreams come true nor condone any impropriety. As an indictment of Victorian marriage laws and social intolerance, Jude the Obscure is quite effective (it caused an outrage on its initial publication, and understandably so; one can only wonder what the irate Victorian audience would have made of the uncensored draft of the book, which contained even more offensive scenes). As a requiem to dreams, an exploration of happiness versus duty and a lesson not to get side-tracked from one's dreams by false sentiments, it's a powerful read -- or so it would be if it weren't for Hardy's penchant for histrionics and unsubtle characterisation. Pity he didn't have a modern creative writing teacher to teach him the ropes. For all his talent, he really could have done with one here.(less)

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Jul 23, 2007 Drew rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: men

Shelves: lit

Jude is every man. He is obscure, in that his choices make no sense, and yet complete sense. He manages to impregnate a local woman he has no aspirations to marry, and yet does. He abandons hope for a rewarding and successful career. Then he carries on with his cousin, mainly because she is a way out of his dull life. All along, we are reminded of what could have been, if only this man could settle for one woman. He meets the best end for a character I've ever read, and one that is more than app...more

10 likes · like · see review

May 07, 2011 Christopher H. rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: british-literature, victorian-literature, historical-fiction, thomas-hardy, read-in-2010, favorites, my-western-canon, favorite-rereads, read-in-2011

A few days ago I finished Thomas Hardy's last novel, Jude the Obscure. I was completely overwhelmed and truly needed a few days to reflect upon the experience and collect my thoughts before attempting a review. Bear in mind too, that this is the first time that I have read Jude, and I sincerely believe that this novel may require a lifetime of reading and study in order to fully tease out and understand the import of Hardy's message.

First, a little background about the novel. This novel took Har...more

21 likes · like · see review

Apr 03, 2008 Jessica rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: YOU, if you've finished all the chicken soup for the soul books already

Recommended to Jessica by: the guy at the crisis hotline

Shelves: kind-of-depressing

If I remember correctly, this book is a real laff riot, with a touchingly sweet and uplifting message. I think I read somewhere that Hardy was feted in the streets of his hometown Christminster and given the Feelgood Author of 1895 Award for this baby, and rightly so! What a heartwarming gift for someone who's feeling down, such as a student who's just lost his financial aid, or someone you know who's trying to make an unconventional relationship work despite social strictures. Okay, full disclo...more

19 likes · like · see review

Jul 02, 2007 Ted rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

i've avoided thomas hardy for most of my life: first from ignorance, then on the advice of a few friends whose taste i trust. then i read an inspirational article in the tls this summer, on the relationship -- both personal and working -- between hardy and henry ibsen, which directed me towards jude the obscure. the description i found there led me to hope that the novel's themes (anticlericism, the emerging modern person, etc) would be right up my alley. so i took the dive.[return][return]i wis...more

5 likes · like · see review

Aug 04, 2007 Chris rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classic_literature, all-time_favorites

To say that the book is bleak is to say that the sun is warm. 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 decisions, and you know that there will be consequences. But Hardy never lets you believe that all of the misery in your life is self-inflicted - because even when his characters try to make the right decision, they will inevitab...more

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Mar 04, 2012 Draven rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I know people tend to bandy the phrase "ahead of its time" about a lot of books, but I truly feel it applies to Hardy's Jude The Obscure. The entire narrative seems to battle its own contradictory nature, at times a tract on religion and philosophy, at others, a desperate love story about a doomed couple and their tempestuous passion for one another. I never knew what to expect from one chapter to the next. It truly did not fit any of the parameters of a novel written in its time period.

Essentia...more

3 likes · like · see review

Dec 31, 2007 Lauren rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorite-books

Just about killed me. An incredible, crushing novel. Hardy writes what I feel. If I didn't know any better about Hardy, I'd think this novel was the 19th-century "Requiem for a Dream," the equivalent of an anti-emotional, anti-adultery PSA. That's how harsh it is. I know a lot of people were made to read it in high school, but then again, I had the weird childhood. The epitome of a tragic figure, Jude Fawley is shut down at every turn... or built up slightly, only to lose everything. The best ba...more

12 likes · like · see review

Dec 16, 2008 Sarah rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: kindred-characters

As with Tess, this book concerns the injustices inherent to conventional society with particular emphasis on marriage and religion. Unlike Tess, it's written primarily from the male perspective -- and perhaps more closely reflects Thomas Hardy's own point of view.

I found it validating and infuriating by turns. At times, it was disheartening. I very much related to Sue but couldn't quite discern Hardy's tone in regard to her. (I wish reviewers would stop calling her a frigid narcissist!) The one...more

6 likes · like · see review

Nov 25, 2011 Richard G rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

Sinking into the abyss.

5 likes · like · see review

Jul 24, 2012 Gary McTiernan rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Jude is an enigma to me. For all his radical ideals and lofty aspirations he is tragically under the influence of the two women in his life. He is twice tricked into marriage by one of them and willingly submits to the tempestuous cravings of the other because he views her as his soulmate and true wife, although they shun the institution of marriage. Jude and Sue are flower children. It is their undoing that they lived 70 years before their time. They manage to eke out a few years of happiness b...more

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Jun 19, 2011 Orsolya rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, wishlist, favorites

Jude the Obscure is one of my favorite novels of all time. It doesn't matter which time era the story is presented, it makes sense. Remarkably, it was written during a time with far more sexual restraint than we know today and definitely resulted in Hardy going "out with a bang".

There is more to a man than the outright sexual pleasures and need to plant his seed, and Jude clearly show the ties between the primal urges and that of loneliness and desire for love and acceptance. He makes some imma...more

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Jul 07, 2011 Charlotte rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I tossed this into my suitcase on my way to Oxford and only realized after I had arrived that it is set in Oxford. After that, of course, I had to read the book. I enjoy Thomas Hardy's writing as much in this book as in Tess. For some reason, I love the many allusions, the heavy foreshadowing, and his earnest, suffering characters.

However, I found the plot much less believable in this book than in Tess. I feel that tragedy should have a feeling of inevitability but the main tragic event that oc...more

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Sep 12, 2008 Jamie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

If you are looking for a good cry, Thomas Hardy is always there. I did not like Jude the Obscure nearly as much as I have liked some of Hardy's other works (i.e. Tess and Return of the Native), but I still very much enjoyed it. I never really liked Sue Brideshead as a character, but I found myself rooting for Jude the whole way through the book and hoping that she would say yes to marriage. Alas!

By the end of the book I was sobbing. Not that I didn't know it was coming. Hardy has a way in his bo...more

5 likes · like · see review

Dec 10, 2008 C. rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, own-or-access

More like 3.5.

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 the blurb, than about his romantic trials and tribulations, particularly those involving Sue Bridehead, whose character, incidentally, drove me up the wall. A more pathetic, snivelling, 'quivering', despicable cre...more

5 likes · like · see review

Sep 19, 2007 Elwood Glover is currently reading it · review of another edition Recommends it for: anyone

It's a classic. The edition I own is actually a British paperback that I bought in 1976, when I was 20. I started it at that time but didn't finish it; picked it up again 10 or 15 years later and read it through. I found the story gripping but was irritated by the arbitrary-seeming strokes of misfortune that afflict the main character. I've since read several of Hardy's earlier novels ("Far From the Madding Crowd", "The Mayor of Casterbridge", "A Pair Of Blue Eyes") and developed an appreciation...more

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Mar 19, 2008 Colin Hogan rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I bought this book so long ago. During my sophomore year in high school, I was in Kaufman and Hart's "The Man Who Came to Dinner," a play littered with literary allusions. I don't know why, but I decided that I was going to make my way through them.

Eight years later, I have completed the first of the books, and it was great. Last fall, I read "Far from the Madding Crowd," but this was much better. Mostly over 400 pages of Victorian prose is not easy to get through, but this book flew by in no t...more

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Sep 09, 2008 Amy rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

This was difficult to rate. I wholeheartedly agree with another reader who wrote: "Some days it was a five star read and others a two, with me wanting to throw it at a wall." The characters were so human, so painful in their weaknesses. It was heartbreaking to witness the obscure (yes!) demise of humans with so much initial promise. I'm half-cursing Hardy. But he does make his statement (shockingly for the time period) about marriage, social norms, feminism. Sue drove me crazy throughout, but I...more

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Aug 29, 2008 Rob Walter rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This man can write! It was recommended to me by Nicholas Manning, but he failed to mention that the man can write. Very beautiful, economical, unselfconscious prose that is refreshing if you've been working through too much Don DeLillo and Martin Amis.

I'm only about thirty pages in, but so far the plot is basically the same as Harry Potter (with about the same depth of charecterisation). I read Tess of the D'Urbervilles many years ago and hated it because of that stupid I-love-you-but-I-couldn't...more

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May 27, 2008 Dorothy rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This one killed my Hardy reading streak. Jude is the male version of Tess of the D'Urbervilles: witless, gullible, and uber-dramatic. He wallows in self pity while stumbling through his highly improbable, moronic existence, which reads like a twisted version of "A Series of Unfortunate Events." Suicide? It's a given. Adultery? You bet. Incest, polygamy and infectious disease? Yes indeedy. I was so hardened by the grisly events of previous chapters that I found myself rejoicing as the characters...more

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Apr 24, 2007 Claire rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

this book annoys me to an incredible degree, forced to study Hardy at college, i developed a loathing for his novels that has never faded. perhaps the most trying element is 'young father Time' and idea that 'dun because we are too menny' - what on earth was Hardy thinking? a child can spell 'because' but not 'done' or 'many'?

his poetry is all right, mind.

the best thing I ever learnt about TH was that when he was born, the midwife thought he was dead and chucked him into the bin. From which he w...more

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Nov 16, 2007 Meaghan rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Hardy fans

Shelves: classics

Midway through I called my boyfriend, who has an English lit degree, and asked, "Um, besides all the spouse-swapping, is anything actually going to happen in this book?" He laughed and said, "Trust me. Something's going to happen."

Something did.

I finished the book at 3:00 a.m. and couldn't sleep all night. I staggered down to breakfast and sat in the cafeteria with such a traumatized expression that several friends asked me what had happened. Thomas Hardy happened, that's what. Little Father Tim...more

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Nov 26, 2008 Nate rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Read this if you're looking for that final push towards suicide.

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Dec 31, 2007 Salma rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classic-lit

I probably have no business reviewing this at all, since I've gotten only halfway through the book. And that was three years ago. I adore Hardy, so what the hell is it about this tome that had me putting it aside every time I progressed a few pages? Maybe because it was taking so long for things to happen, for Chrissake. I've read about how this book shocked society through all the horrid things that happened, and I'm like- okay, where do these horrible things happen? Page 300? Maybe I'm just hy...more

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Jul 27, 2010 Michelle added it · review of another edition

I thought I loved Thomas Hardy. He has a way with words that places the reader at the scene and brings those scenes to life for any modern reader. However, after careful reflection, I am not too certain I stand by my conviction that I like Thomas Hardy. See, he's too depressing. Most of his characters are put into unfortunate situations, find their way out for a bit and then end up worse than when the reader is first introduced to them. This holds true with Tess of the D'Urbervilles and holds tr...more I thought I loved Thomas Hardy. He has a way with words that places the reader at the scene and brings those scenes to life for any modern reader. However, after careful reflection, I am not too certain I stand by my conviction that I like Thomas Hardy. See, he's too depressing. Most of his characters are put into unfortunate situations, find their way out for a bit and then end up worse than when the reader is first introduced to them. This holds true with Tess of the D'Urbervilles and holds true with Jude the Obscure as well.

With Jude, Hardy presents the dreamer beset by reality. This is a clear sign that not all will bode well for dear Jude. As this is a general theme in Hardy's works, one has to wonder that Hardy just did not like those who dreamt of a better life and sought ways to improve themselves. It is such a negative attitude as well as the exact opposite of the American dream.

One cannot mention Jude the Obscure without mentioning marriage, as this is where the novel gets all of its tension, which drives the plot forward. As it is believed that Jude the Obscure is relatively autobiographical, make no mistake that Hardy does not have a very positive view of the status of marriage. His is rather a very modern point of view in a Victorian era that is not ready for such ideas. The idea of marriage is a continual issue for Sue, which is where the reader can see the biggest conflict. In Sue, Hardy presents the dichotomy between individual values (no marriage) and society's values (marriage required). According to Hardy, one cannot coexist with the other, and a person must choose between either set of values. However, to choose against society requires a thick skin and a level of patience and/or ignorance of society's scorn - neither of which could be used to describe Sue. As for the institution itself, Hardy still is rather pessimistic. At one point in time, the narrator mentions that a truly married couple did not act affectionate but rather should yell and argue and throw furniture at each other. Both Sue and Jude marry people that repulse them, yet their love for each other is not allowed to flourish because it is not contained within the institution of marriage. The message the reader cannot help but take away from these occurrences is that love has no place in marriage. Interesting, no?

Hardy's discussion of children is just as depressing. There is much talk about whether children would be better off never having been born if they are to be born into a poor family.

"'I think that whenever children be born that are not wanted they should be killed directly, before their souls come to 'em, and not allowed to grow big and walk about!'" (pg. 355)

This begs the question whether Hardy is trying to tell us that Jude was essentially doomed to a life of suffering from the moment he was born. Either way, it is a powerful statement, about an issue that has been an ongoing, and passionate debate for years.

All of these issues leads to a very dark, morose novel. I struggled to get behind the characters, as Sue drove me insane with her waffling and inability to make a decision and stick with it, and Jude was not forceful enough. I kept waiting for the moment for Jude to stand up for his beliefs and his happiness. Rather, he sits back and accepts everything that happens to him, without making an effort to change it for his own benefit. It wasn't that Jude lacked backbone; he just lacked a desire to stand and fight. I remained disappointed with Jude and distracted by Sue throughout the novel, even while I kept hoping that either character would change. Neither one did.

Overall, I cannot say that I truly enjoyed Jude the Obscure, but I did glean a bit more about life in Victorian England for the desolate and downtrodden. Having to leave one town for another when the work ran out, having to past muster with a potential landlord just to rent a room, living in such small towns that were geographically close together so that gossip easily spread from one village to another - it was a rough life, one that requires spirit, drive, and an unwillingness to succumb to the pressures of life. Unfortunately, neither Sue nor Jude had any one of those characteristics, and therein lies my issue. I would have appreciated more character growth from both main characters. I feel like I should not have supported the two minor characters more than I did the two main ones, but as they showed the most gumption, they earned my admiration. Hardy is a must-read for any classic lover only because he portrays various milieu of English life with precision. It isn't the happiest of pictures most times, but as a learning experience for an understanding of English life outside what is taught in history books, he is one of the best.(less)

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About Thomas Hardy

Thomas Hardy, OM, was an English author of the naturalist movement, although in several poems he displays elements of the previous romantic and enlightenment periods of literature, such as his facination with the supernatural. Though he regarded himself primarily as a poet and composed novels mainly for financial gain. The bulk of his work, set mainly in the semi-fictional land of Wessex, delineat...more

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“People go on marrying because they can't resist natural forces, although many of them may know perfectly well that they are possibly buying a month's pleasure with a life's discomfort.” — 157 people liked it

“But no one came. Because no one ever does.” — 135 people liked it

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