Customer Reviews

Jude the Obscure Standard Edition

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Jude the Obscure is a well-written book. It flows well and is interesting. In it Hardy explores the nature and parts of marriage. The characters struggle over the nature and power of marriage, and their obligations that they must each fulfill. For some time Jude Fawley is kept from creating a relationship with his cousin, Sue Bridehead, because of his legal marriage contract with another. Even though his wife had long since left him and moved to Australia, he could not bring himself to carryout a relationship until he received news that his wife had divorced him. Sue, however, struggled not with the legal issues, but the moral issues. At first she felt that it was most important to be with the man she loved, even though she was legally bound to another. She explicitly asked her husband's permission to leave him and live with Jude, because she realized she did not love him, but only enjoyed him as a friend. He agrees, and later divorces her. She and Jude join each other, but she will not get herself to legally marry Jude, as she feels it devalues the moral contract of marriage. But after a traumatic event, she realizes that she should not have left her past husband, and leaves Jude to remarry him, even though she still does not love him. Jude's past wife also shows up, and upon finding that Sue has left him, drags him into marriage again. Despite both Jude and Sue being unhappy in their situations, Sue continues to insist that it is best to honor the original moral obligation. Even though by law neither she nor Jude were bound to their past spouses, she feels that morally they always have been.
Much of the story is overshadowed by unhappiness or discontentedness. The book does not leave the reader with a pleasant feeling after finishing it. However, it is interesting, and certainly well written. And not all books are written to make the reader feel good, but some to make the reader think. This is the case with Jude the Obscure.