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A review by emilymknight
Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy
challenging
reflective
sad
slow-paced
4.25
I do love Hardy’s works, and while this was not one of his finest , it was still a decent read.
The beginning very much reminded me of Great Expectations, with Jude as a child in the countryside dreaming of making it in the big city. While the main portion of the book felt quite repetitive - marriage, divorce, marriage, divorce, people are talking shit about us, now we can’t get jobs, let’s move to another town - but what took me by surprise was just randomlyBOOM, 4 children die in one chapter…? Lord. I must say I wasn’t expecting that.
Arabella and Sue were equally infuriating in their owns rights, Jude too at times, however, I did have more sympathy for him becauseArabella’s ploy to get Jude to marry her at the beginning was pretty much THE starting point for it all going downhill.
The ending wasa little anti climatic in my opinion, however, it is probably quite fitting for a sad and unfortunate man like Jude. I didn’t think it was majorly depressing like I’ve seen a lot of people say, I’d say it was just sad. Just… very sad.
The beginning very much reminded me of Great Expectations, with Jude as a child in the countryside dreaming of making it in the big city. While the main portion of the book felt quite repetitive - marriage, divorce, marriage, divorce, people are talking shit about us, now we can’t get jobs, let’s move to another town - but what took me by surprise was just randomly
Arabella and Sue were equally infuriating in their owns rights, Jude too at times, however, I did have more sympathy for him because
The ending was
“As you got older, and felt yourself to be at the centre of your time, and not at a point in its circumference, as you had felt when you were little, you were seized with a sort of shuddering, he perceived. All around you there seemed to be something glaring, garish, rattling, and the noises and glares hit upon the little cell called your life, and shook it, warped it.”