A Haunting, Horrifying Book. Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy
‘ He was the sort of man who was born to ache a good deal before the fall of the curtain upon his unnecessary life,’ Thomas Hardy writes about his central character Jude. He certainly faces terrible pain and sorrow that is almost impossible to bear in this excoriating indictment of class distinction, marriage, the church and Victorian hypocrisy. It’s a bleak, unremittingly depressing book, and one that you can never forget. Jude, a poor man who lives with his old and rather nasty aunt who tells him that the Fawley family is cursed, admires his schoolteacher Phillotsen, and wants to follow him to the dreaming spires of Christminster (Oxford). He thrives on study, reading Greek and Latin in the fields, and deep into the night. However, studying at Christminster requires money, and Jude will take years to earn it as a stonemason. Unfortunately, the first obstacle to his achieving his ambition occurs when the mendacious Arabella pretends to be pregnant, and traps him into marriage. Un...