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Sep. 7th, 2008
On the book
Sep. 7th, 2008 04:00 pmSo after 150 pages, I've gotten into the disturbing parts of Jude the Obscure. He kind of ticks me off - the way he's getting into the habit of thinking poorly of himself and giving up in particular.
But it's really kind of funny too. I think when this was written, his watching his cousin from afar was supposed to be rather romantic - but these days it's rather easy to label that "stalking". That he actually meets her by her invitation is, perhaps, as much of a surprise to the reader as to Jude. (I kind of wonder if that, too, was from their great-aunt's continually backfiring attempts to keep them from meeting.) Of course, everything goes wrong for him all over the place, a lot of which is his own doing, and by now all his highest ideals are entirely on hold. The publication date's a bit late, but still (I think) well within the bounds of the Romantic Era... and everything I know about where the story's going fits that description.
The first like of the Wikipedia article is great. "Jude the Obscure is the last of Thomas Hardy's novels, begun as a magazine serial and first published in book form in 1895. The book was burnt publicly by the Bishop of Exeter in that same year."
I get the feeling that I'm going to love this story for all the wrong reasons.
But it's really kind of funny too. I think when this was written, his watching his cousin from afar was supposed to be rather romantic - but these days it's rather easy to label that "stalking". That he actually meets her by her invitation is, perhaps, as much of a surprise to the reader as to Jude. (I kind of wonder if that, too, was from their great-aunt's continually backfiring attempts to keep them from meeting.) Of course, everything goes wrong for him all over the place, a lot of which is his own doing, and by now all his highest ideals are entirely on hold. The publication date's a bit late, but still (I think) well within the bounds of the Romantic Era... and everything I know about where the story's going fits that description.
The first like of the Wikipedia article is great. "Jude the Obscure is the last of Thomas Hardy's novels, begun as a magazine serial and first published in book form in 1895. The book was burnt publicly by the Bishop of Exeter in that same year."
I get the feeling that I'm going to love this story for all the wrong reasons.
More of the book
Sep. 7th, 2008 08:37 pmAnd now Sue ticks me off even more. She is unbelieveably fickle - or perhaps just totally chaotic. In any case, while I can see why Jude adores her, I think he's TOTALLY wrong in doing so...
Very curious.
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Some 25 pages or so later, I am amused at the line "insulted Nature sometimes vindicated her rights" taken from a historical text about priests and virgins in the early Church sharing rooms.
Very curious.
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Some 25 pages or so later, I am amused at the line "insulted Nature sometimes vindicated her rights" taken from a historical text about priests and virgins in the early Church sharing rooms.