|Jude the Obscure
by Thomas Hardy
|Jude the Obscure:
An Authoritative Text,
|Jude the Obscure:
A Paradise of Despair
by Gary Adelman
Jude the Obscure
|Jude the Obscure
(Barnes & Noble
by Thomas Hardy
Jude the Obscure
|Jude the Obscure:
A Paradise of Despair
Series, No. 94)
by Gary Adelman
|Jude the Obscure
Hardy, Thomas from Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed., 2001-2005.
Meet the Writers: Thomas Hardy. Biography from Barnes & Noble.
Thomas Hardy. Portrait, 1923. Oil on canvas by Reginald Grenville Eves R.A. (1876-1941). From The Victorian Web.
Thomas Hardy. Encyclopedia Article from MSN Encarta. Includes portrait.
Thomas Hardy. Resource Library by Mark Simons. Contents: Texts, Biography: Thomas Hardy's Lifeline - A Chronology - 1840-1930, Media, Dorset, Links. "1928: Winter Words is published posthumously: Hardy died on January 11. His ashes are buried in Poet's Corner, Westminster Abbey, and his heart is buried in Emma's grave. The Early Life of Thomas Hardy is published under Florence's name. 1930: The Later Years of Thomas Hardy published under Florence's name.
Thomas Hardy from Bibliomania. "He left the rural South West at the age of 22 and travelled to London ... In the metropolis his passion for reading continued but he lived amid the bustle of city life and like many 19th century intellectuals he lost his faith and became an agnostic."
Thomas Hardy from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Thomas Hardy (2 June 1840 – 11 January 1928) was a novelist, short story writer, and poet of the naturalist movement, who delineated characters struggling against their passions and circumstances. Contents: Biography, Novels, Poetry, Bibliography, References, External links. Includes photo of Burial site of Thomas Hardy's heart.
Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) with portrait, from AppleBookshop.co.uk. "Born in Higher Bockhampton on the 2nd of June 1840, Thomas Hardy died at Max Gate, his house on the outskirts of Dorchester, on the 11th January 1928."
Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) from Pegasos - A Literature Related Resource Site. "English poet and regional novelist, whose works depict the imaginary county "Wessex" (=Dorset). Hardy's career as writer spanned over fifty years."
Thomas Hardy: Biographical Information from The Victorian Web. Includes portrait of Thomas Hardy. Contents include: A Chronology of the Life and Works of Thomas Hardy by Philip V. Allingham, Lakehead University, Thunder Bay, Ontario. A Thomas Hardy Gallery (Photographs) -- Places Important in His Life and Writings.
Thomas Hardy Biography includes portrait from ClassicReader.
Thomas Hardy Biography from BritainExpress. "Hardy was frail as a child, and did not start at the village school until he was eight years old."
Thomas Hardy Biography and Works from The Literature Network. "Thomas Hardy (1840-1928), English poet and novelist, famous for his depictions of the imaginary county "Wessex". Hardy's work reflected his stoical pessimism and sense of tragedy in human life."
Jude the Obscure by Esther Lombardi, About.com Guide, Classic Literature. ". . . why was it so controversial?"
Why did Little Father Time write: "Done because we are too menny"?
In Jude the Obscure, Thomas Hardy writes: "Their lives were ruined...; ruined by the fundamental error of their matrimonial union: that of having based a permanent contract on a temporary feeling."
Jude the Obscure. From The Victorian Web: Chapter Eight: Century's End: "The Coming Universal Wish Not to Live" - Discussion by Barbara T. Gates, Alumni Distinguished Professor of English, University of Delaware.
Triablogue: Jude the Obscure by Steve Hays. Jude the Obscure: The Apparent Problem. A Problem for Whom? Inerrancy. Inspiration. Potential Solutions. Enoch. The Assumption of Moses.
● From AudioFile: "Author Thomas Hardy espoused Shakespeare's dictum (from King Lear): 'As flies to wanton boys are we to the gods; they kill us for their sport.' He particularly exhibits this pessimism in Jude the Obscure, his tragedy about Jude Fawley, a stonemason torn by ambitions both intellectual and carnal ..."
● From The Merriam-Webster Encyclopedia of Literature: "... published in book form in 1895. Hardy's last work of fiction, Jude the Obscure is also one of his most gloomily fatalistic, depicting the lives of individuals who are trapped by forces beyond their control."
Book Review: Jude the Obscure from Jandy's Reading Room. "I had forgotten how much I can dislike a book and still say it is a wonderful novel ... This book scandalized England when it was first published in 1896. After reading it I understand why it did. The content would not now scandalize, but the characters are still pitiful. It's a wonderful character study on how people know what they want but cannot obtain their desires through their own actions."
Book Review (Video): Jude the Obscure from Blue Rectangle.com.
Book Reviews from Good Reads. "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 . . .
Jude the Obscure is bleak and haunting. But it's also so brilliantly written, memorable and beautiful in its tragedy . . .
No; the real tragedy of the book is not the injustice of the class divide, but the plight of Jude and Sue, whose minds were simply a century or so too liberal and progressive for their time . . .
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 kicked the bucket, one by one. Each corpse meant I was closer to the end of this stupid, stupid book. Ugh."
Code the Obscure: About Thomas Hardy by Andrew Oram, editor at O'Reilly Media, a book publisher and technology information provider. Under Hardy’s concerns and its relation to today’s conflicts - "While Hardy offers many pleasures, including a superbly evocative style and a grand sense of tragicomic irony, what I find most relevant today are his protests over what was wrong in the society of his time: the harsh and unjust life led by the poor, the oppression of women, and ... the generally stultifying conformity of Victorian morality." Under The Victorian Hardy and the modern Hardy - "In Jude the Obscure Hardy ... places the causes of events squarely on the psychological motives and counter-motives of his characters." Under Why do Julian and Sharon have such a hard time? - "There is no doubt that social forces barred Jude from his youthful goal, which was to get into Oxford University. The opportunities for poor people to enter a university were, in fact, increasingly restricted during the 19th century in England."
Jude the Obscure (Bantam Classics) by Thomas Hardy: Synopses & Reviews. "In 1895 Hardy's final novel, the great tale of Jude The Obscure, sent shockwaves of indignation rolling across Victorian England ... The stonemason Jude Fawley is a dreamer; his is a tragedy of unfulfilled aims ... The most powerful expression of Hardy's philosophy, and a profound exploration of man's essential loneliness, Jude The Obscure is a great and beautiful book." From Powell's Books.
Jude the Obscure …being the book that outraged conventional pieties. Review by Macdonald Daly, from New Internationalist magazine on-line. (Scroll down the page to Classic to read review). "The publication of Thomas Hardy’s Jude the Obscure in 1895 caused something of a scandal. One of the novel’s two main themes, that of misery in marriage, was widely regarded as blasphemous ... Hardy later wrote that the novel’s message was simply ‘that marriage should be dissolvable as soon as it becomes a cruelty so either of the parties - being then essentially and morally no marriage’, but this did not prevent Blackwood’s Magazine depicting him as a devilish apostle of free love. The New York Bookman called it ‘simply one of the most objectionable books that we have ever read in any language whatsoever’ ..."
Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy. Review of audiobook, a Sam West Audio Performance. "Jude emerges as an entirely complex character, a man poorly suited for the life he was born into, and therefore bound for tragedy as are most such in a rigid class-ordered society." From the Scriptorium of Sam West.
. . . Jude the Obscure could be seen as a conservative moral. Certainly, the novel is an impassioned plea for rationality, freedom between men and women, and enlightenment from religious dogmatism. However, it also hammers home the tragic consequences of swimming against the dominant tide of society's norms . . .
Jude the Obscure is a terribly dark work of art . . . The central tragic murderous act--committed by a child--is probably one of the most heart-breaking passages in literary history . . ."
Review: "Jude the Obscure" By Thomas Hardy. Blog posted by Christopher Harris at ProSe (pro se = Latin. "for oneself"). "This novel took Hardy sometime to write. He started with an outline in 1890, and did not complete the book until 1894. It was first published serially in Harper's New Monthly Magazine from December 1894 to November 1895, and then it was published in book form. Hardy took a lot of heat for the novel from reviewers and critics, other authors, as well as the general public . . .
In Jude the Obscure, Hardy addresses the prevailing Victorian attitudes associated with social class and standing, educational opportunities, religion, the institution of marriage, and the influence of Darwinism on modern thought . . .
First and foremost, this is a novel of ideas and ideals . . .
Issues associated with Love and Marriage also dominate much of the novel's landscape . . .
Modernization has come and displaced the old world romanticism of Jude Fawley and Thomas Hardy. Jude-the-Dreamer and Jude-the-Idealist have no place in this new order . . . Unfortunately for Jude, even Arabella is present to witness his final suffering and agony. Jude's story has become, in a very real sense Hardy's modern retelling of the 'Book of Job.' [Note the word play too -- the "J" from 'Jude' and the "Ob" from 'Obscure']"
The Brown House Barn. "The Brown House, known locally as the Red House, is situated on the road to Great Fawley, the Marygreen of the novel, about five miles south of Wantage, the Alfredston of Jude, in Berkshire. From the roof of this 'weather-beaten old barn' Jude was able to see in the sky to the northward the halo of light which hung over Christminster, the fictitious name for Oxford, the city of his dreams." From The Victorian Web.
Cottage at Cresscombe. "This cottage was the model for the description of the home of Arabella Don, and here Jude first met her." From The Victorian Web.
The majority of the film was shot in late 1995 in Edinburgh and locations in Country Durham including Durham Cathedral, Durham City, Ushaw College, Blanchland village and Beamish museum." Plot Summary, Main Cast.
Jude - Kate Winslet - Thomas Hardy Classic. YouTube video, 3:18 min.
Jude: My Skin. YouTube video, 5:33 min.
Jude Part 1. YouTube video, 9:50 min.
Jude Part 2. YouTube video, 9:17 min.
Jude Part 3. YouTube video, 9:46 min.
Jude Part 4. YouTube video, 9:12 min.
Jude Part 5. YouTube video, 9:10 min.
Jude Part 6. YouTube video, 9:10 min.
Jude Part 8. YouTube video, 9:39 min.
Jude Part 10. YouTube video, 9:59 min.
Jude Part 11. YouTube video, 9:05 min.
Jude Part 12. YouTube video, 7:41 min.
Jude Part 13. YouTube video, 8:59 min.
Jude the Obscure: A Summary. YouTube video, 6:27 min. English project. "Jude the Obscure, and why it's the most ridiculously emo thing ever."
Jude the Obscure [1971 BBC Production] [VHS]. Rated: Parental Guidance | Format: VHS Tape. Review by a Customer: "This BBC drama serial is a faithful adaptation of Thomas Hardy's final novel. It tells the story of the tragic Jude Fawley, who is denied the education he longs for and happiness with his beloved cousin Sue. Robert Powell gives a very good performance as Jude and the rest of the cast - including Fiona Walker as Sue - are also good. However, this is one of the least entertaining dramas I have seen . . . However, 'Jude the Obscure' is not only tragic, it is very depressing."
Marygreen Church. "This is the new church at Great Fawley, the Marygreen of the novel, where Phillotson and Sue were remarried after she had parted from Jude." From The Victorian Web.
Old Grove's Place, Shaston. "Old Grove's Place, the residence of Phillotson and Sue after their marriage, is just beyond Bimport Street, Shaftesbury, near where the roads branch off to Motcombe and East Stower." From The Victorian Web.
On the farther side of the stream three women were kneeling by William Hatherell. Illustration (December 1894) for Thomas Hardy's The Simpletons later republished in book form as Jude the Obscure. Hatherall's illustrations with commentaries. From The Victorian Web.
Burden of Time - in PDF, 9 pages. Essay by Ayaka Komiya complete with Footnotes and Works Cited page.
Jude the Obscure. Essay written for English 12 Advanced Placement by Joline Baylis. See also an excellent Outline for this essay on Jude the Obscure: I. Introduction, II. Sympathy, III. Laughing With The Character, IV. Conclusion.
Jude the Obscure and Victorian Attitudes toward Suicide. Jude the Obscure (1895): "After the disappointment of his bitter and foolish first marriage, Jude hears of his mother's suicide by drowning and tries to imitate her. Stepping onto a large frozen pond, he jumps up and down on the ice, trying to crack it and plunge to a frigid death. When the ice refuses to yield, he wonders why he has been spared."
'Romanticism' in Jude the Obscure by Holly Davis, University of Otago, Department of English. Excerpt from MA thesis: Hardy and the Romantics.
Thomas Hardy and West Country Literature Tours from Redcliff Study Centre. Calling all Thomas Hardy devotees to consider a course on Literature lasting from 2 days to 2 weeks, to visit and actually walk the sites linked to his novels, poems, short stories and life.