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Wessex Tales: The Distracted Preacher
By Frances , Moderator · 17 posts · 16 views
By Frances , Moderator · 17 posts · 16 views
last updated Dec 06, 2022 04:04AM
Wessex Tales: Interlopers at the Knap
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By Frances , Moderator · 9 posts · 23 views
last updated Nov 28, 2022 03:59PM
What Members Thought
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
First, a little background about the novel. This novel took Har ...more
Sometimes, if we're lucky, we read a book at the perfect time and something about it speaks to what we're feeling in that exact moment of our lives. Jude did that for me. At the heart of the story is a romantic relationship, but much more than this, Hardy's novel is about profound disappointment and loss -- not just the loss of a relationship but a much bigger and more difficult loss.
Jude's story explores that period of growing up when the scales start to fall from our eyes. I think most people ...more
Jude's story explores that period of growing up when the scales start to fall from our eyes. I think most people ...more
I love Thomas Hardy. My lecturer once the class that Hardy uses words to paint a picture. His more famous novel Tess of the D'Urbervilles definitely does this. Jude is quieter, it still has picturesque settings but it is not as dramatic as Tess.
I like this novel because it is astonishing how much society has changed. In Jude, he loses jobs and has to leave homes because he and Sue are not married. It is also not so taboo that they are cousins. Nowadays, cousins together are extremely taboo but n ...more
I like this novel because it is astonishing how much society has changed. In Jude, he loses jobs and has to leave homes because he and Sue are not married. It is also not so taboo that they are cousins. Nowadays, cousins together are extremely taboo but n ...more
Wowzers! This book really affected me. First of all, I could really commiserate with the main character through the tribulations of the first half of the book as he fell into the most basic conundrums of the human condition. I was also right there with him as he ranted against the social norms and institutions of his day. Everything was going so great, and then fate reached out its phantasmagorical knife and cut Jude’s artery open, bleeding his life out upon the pages like the Pig from the openi
...more
I hate Hardy and I love Hardy. This novel finally made me stop wishing to name my daughter Arabella, once and for all.
Oct 16, 2009
Meghan
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
english-literature
Mar 14, 2011
Aylin
marked it as to-read
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
list-top-100-bbc,
by-of-in-britain
Oct 07, 2011
Juniper
marked it as to-read
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
to-acquire,
literature
