THOMAS HARDY'S JUDE THE OBSCURE
A study of Jude the Obscure using contemporary feminist and
literary theory.
Illustrated, with notes and a bibiography.
Jude the Obscure (1895), Thomas Hardy's last novel, is a sister
(or brother) book to Tess of the d'Urbervilles, before he turned to
poetry and other forms of writing. The author attacks similar
targets: the family, politics, religion, marriage, education and
sexuality. Hardy was on fire when he wrote Jude the Obscure - it is
a very angry work.
Jude the Obscure, though, contains far more polemic and
philosophizing than Tess or any of the earlier novels. The
preaching and polemic threatens to undo the narrative, which is
nevertheless 'realist', like other Thomas Hardy fictions.
In Jude the Obscure, Hardy was stretching the novel to the
limit, testing the boundaries of what is 'acceptable'. In Jude the
Obscure, the things that say 'you shan't' are, variously, God,
religion, education, circumstance, chance, nature, and marriage.
All of the institutions and 'causes' reside inside the individual,
which is what makes the problems they create so difficult to deal
with for Sue and Jude. Patriarchy, culture and society are not in
some 'out there' space, but in people. Hardy's thoughts on Jude the
Obscure, as expressed in the Life and letters, include his desire
for a novel about characters 'into whose souls the iron has
entered'; a desire to make the story 'grimy' in order to heighten
the contrast between the ideal life and the 'squalid real life';
the novel 'makes for morality', Hardy said; and ended up 'a mass of
imperfections', a remark many artists have made of their work.
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!