Book Description
'Elfride Swancourt was a girl whose emotions lay very near the surface.'Elfride is the daughter of the Rector of Endelstow, a remote sea-swept parish in Cornwall based on St Juliot, where Hardy began the book during the first days of his courtship of his first wife Emma. Blue-eyed and high-spirited, Elfride has little experience of the world beyond, and becomes entangled with two men: the boyish architect, Stephen Smith, and the older literary man, Henry Knight.The former friends become rivals, and Elfride faces an agonizing choice.Written at a crucial time in Hardy's life, A Pair of Blue Eyesexpresses more directly than any of his novels the events and social forces that made him the writer he was.Elfride's dilemma mirrors the difficult decision Hardy himself had to make with this novel: to pursue the profession of architecture, where he was established, or literature, where he had yet to make his name? ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A fun introduction to Hardy
This is Hardy's third novel (1873), and is set in the southwest area of England (Cornwall), where he met his first wife. It is the story of young, impetuous Elfride, and her romance with two men: the young architect Stephen Smith and the urbane, educated lawyer, Henry Knight. As common with his other novels, it reflects elements of tragedy, irony, and class advancement. Elfride and Knight are low middle-class persons trying to advance in society and in love. Though not as intricate and challenging as his later novels, it is an entertaining and illuminating read nonetheless. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

"Exercising misery to its fullest extent."
In this first of a two-volume collection of Thomas Hardy's (1840-1928) short stories, Editor Kristin Brady (THE FIDDLER OF THE REELS AND OTHER STORIES 1888-1900) has drawn nine short stories from 1874 to 1888, the year Hardy published his first collection of short fiction, WESSEX TALES. During this period, Hardy also published FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD (1874), THE RETURN OF THE NATIVE (1878), THE MAYOR OF CASTERBRIDGE(1886) and THE WOODLANDERS (1887). With all the pathos of and these Victorian classics, his short stories deliver ideas and themes that receive greater development in Hardy's novels. This book, which includes an excellent history together with appendices of the texts, may be read as a collection of Thomas Hardy's measures of human misery. In "Destiny and a Blue Coat," "The Thieves Who Couldn't Help Sneezing," "The Distracted Preacher," "Fellow-Townsmen," "The Three Strangers," "The Romantic Adventures of a Milkmaid," "Interlopers at the Knap," "The Waiting Supper," and "The Withered Arm," his characters reveal their "rich capacity for misery . . . exercised to its fullest extent" (p. 126). For Hardy, life and love were synonymous with human suffering. Okay, so even if Hardy composes his fiction using only the black notes on the keyboard, his stories are certain to satisy readers (like me), who love reading Victorian literature.

G. Merritt ... Read more

Book Description
One of Thomas Hardy's most powerful works, The Return of the Native centers famously on Egdon Heath, the wild, haunted Wessex moor that D. H. Lawrence called "the real stuff of tragedy." The heath's changing face mirrors the fortunes of the farmers, inn-keepers, sons, mothers, and lovers who populate the novel. The "native" is Clym Yeobright, who comes home from a cosmopolitan life in Paris. He; his cousin Thomasin; her fiancé, Damon Wildeve; and the willful Eustacia Vye are the protagonists in a tale of doomed love, passion, alienation, and melancholy as Hardy brilliantly explores that theme so familiar throughout his fiction: the diabolical role of chance in determining the course of a life.

As Alexander Theroux asserts in his Introduction, Hardy was "committed to the deep expression of [nature's] ironic chaos and strange apathy, even hostility, toward man." ... Read more

Customer Reviews (11)

The Return of the Native is a reader's return to the joys found in Hardy's Wessex
The Return of the Native is a great Victorian novel. It's author is Thomas Hardy who published the book serially in 1878 prior to book publication. The main characters whose live are interwoved into a tragedy of Greek proportions are:
1. Clyde Yeobright-He is the Wessex native who returns from his career as a jeweler in Paris. Clym returns to the bleak landscape of Egdon Heath to be plummeted into a maelstrom of passion, sex, suffering and deceit.
2. Eustace Vye-The sexy daughter of a bandsmaster in Budmouth (real name-Weymouth) she is a seductress who dreams of a life of luxury.Eustace will marry Clym; run away with Wildeve and die in a tragic manner. Whether her death is a suicide or accident is not stated. Eustace joins Tess of the D'Urbervilles, Bathsheba Everdene and other memorable femme fatales creates by Hardy's agile pen.
3. Thomasin Yeobright-She is the young cousin of Clym. She falls in love with Wildeve, marries him and bears the former engineer/present innkeeper a baby. As the novel ends she weds the reddleman Gregory Venn. She is a an uncomplicated woman who is a pale version of Eustace Vye.
4. Wildeve-A failed engineer he operates an inn. Though Wildeve loves Eustace he marries Thomasin.He will later leave Thomasin to run away with his true love Eustace. He will drown alongside his paramour.
5. Mrs. Yeobright-The bright, strong and virtuous mother of Clym who hates his marriage to Eustace Vye. She dies when Eustace refuses to open the door to let her into the Yeobright's home. Mrs. Yeobright is, probably, modeled on Hardy's own mother.
6. Gregory Venn-He is a reddleman (one who provides paint to shepherds who mark the sheep in their flocks) who is in love with Thomasin. He enjoys spying on the main characters. As the novel ends he is a respectable dairy farmer.
The characters are often compared to insects or animals who must exist in a godless world controlled by the uncaring fates. Coincidence and irony are used in the complicated plot. Hardy's vision is dark and forbidding.
This Hardy classic includes his usual close attention to the lives of the common people; descriptive pages on nature and criticisms of animal cruelty.
Perhaps the greatest character in the novel is Egdon Heath. Human characters love, suffer and die but it lasts forever.
Thomas Hardy is one of the best English novels along with such luminaries as Dickens, Eliot, Austen and Trollope. It is always a pleasure to read and reread his words.

Return of the Native
The book has been reviewed extensively. It is a modern classic and should be read. You will enjoy it. More important, the buying experience through Amazon was as expected. The books arrived earlier than I expected, in pristine, brand new, condition. What more could you ask for?

An opera of a book
I read this novel when I was living in Japan. There were no English books avaliable where I was living but a motley collection of classics in the local library.

I found the book somewhat long and slow but loved the language and character desciptions, for example Hardy decribes the main female character Eustacia Vye as "Queen of the night whose passions and instincts would make a model goddess but not quite a model woman" with "pagan eyes, full of noctural mysteries. It is a opera of a book, long and slow but with moments of great beauty

Eustacia and the Heath: Two Sides of the Same Coin
Yes, the Heath is the centerpiece, but no more than Eustacia, for they are mirrors of one another, by turns cold and aloof, brooding, mysterious, somewhat wild, tempestuous, and a place where at times man must tread carefully. Some are inexorably drawn to the contours, shades and subtleties of Egdon Heath (Mother Earth) while others seek shelter from its periodic wrath. So, too, the people of the Heath seem divided about their Earth Mother, Eustacia - reading the worst into her or - in the case of many of its men - hoping against hope that the vagaries of nature will look favorably upon them.

This is the most descriptive portrayal of both woman and nature that I have ever read.

absorbing atmosphere
This is the 1st Thomas Hardy novel I picked up and one of his most visually striking; in that, you can see and feel the environment in which the characters live. The landscape here both traps and releases the people inside it. Eustacia is one of Hardy's best heroines, vulnerable and cunning within minutes. And part of the Hardy pattern where tragedy invades before the end of the story; tragedy, as he writes it, that is often accidental rather than forced. (the forced tragedy usually follows the accidental one.) Clym and Damon may be the 2 main sources of Eustacia's downfall, but she brings on her own fate, so to speak, by remaining disillusioned with where she is. Key other players bissect the main characters in equally helpful and not so helpful ways. The main "character" still remains Edgon Heath, the harsh, often beautiful setting, where everyone is almost destined to be doomed... ... Read more

Book Description
Love can be surprising. Love can be heartbreaking. Love can be an art. But love is the singular emotion that all humans rely on most . . . and crave endlessly, no matter what the cost. United by this theme of love, the nine titles in the Penguin Great Loves collection include tales of blissful and all-encompassing, doomed and tragic, erotic and absurd, seductive and adulterous, innocent and murderous love. A deeply moving addition to the Penguin Great Ideas and Great Journeys series, each gorgeously packaged book will challenge all expectations of love while celebrating the beauty of its existence.

All books in this series: Cures for Love
Doomed Love
The Eaten Heart
First Love
Forbidden Fruit
The Kreutzer Sonata
A Mere Interlude
Of Mistresses, Tigresses and Other Conquests
The Seducer’s Diary
... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

The Master in Miniature
Hardy's novels continue to be justly popular and his poetry (which he considered his most important work)has worn well with the critics, but the short stories deserve a much wider audience than they have received. This collection, which contains some of his best, provides a fine introduction to the dark vision of the late Victorian master. The title story is uncharacteristically happy, a pastoral piece in which Hardy tells a comic tale about a young woman's unexpected talent for criminal activity.The other stories are much more representative, being concerned with the perils of love, the cruelty of convention and the tragic vulnerability of human aspirations to the whims of fate. Many of the tales are also wrapped in the Gothic and even grotesque trappings that Hardy seemed to favour when the mood was upon him. This collection gives Bram Stoker and Stephen King a run for their money, featuring a corpse with a stake driven through its heart, a new bride spending her wedding night with her new husband by her side and the corpse of her first husband in the next room, parricide, suicide and kidnapping. The mood of the pieces varies from the sunny high jinks of "The Distracted Preacher" to the wrenching tragedy of "A Son's Veto" and the relentless horror of "The Withered Arm." Overall, this group of tales gives the newcomer to Hardy an excellent introduction to his talents as a storyteller, and fans of his novels will enjoy the opportunity to see the master at work on a smaller stage.

Hardy was NOT a great short story writer...
but these stories, culled from his archives, represent the absolute bestof his short work.

Hardy's tales here evoke early 19th century England;not just the Wessex Heath of Return of the Native (a novel whose openingfour pages are among the best in all of literature) but the small townswhere bootleggers operate and ghosts walk the back lanes.

All thesestories have an "oral" quality about them, as if they were toldby a hoary English gent, his face wreathed in smoke from an old Meerschaum. None of these stories will knock you out, but there were some pleasantsurprises, including "An Imaginative Woman" (the best Hardy shortstory I've read so far),and "A Tragedy of Two Ambitions," whichraises intriguing questions on murder and responsibility.Hardy's favoritetale, "The Son's Veto" is also included, but I found this story,along with "Fiddler of the Reels" to be a dud. "Barbara ofthe House of Grebe" is unintentionally funny - an execrable Gothicexercise, where Hardy sounds more formulaic than ever. Thankfully, thetoo-oft anthologized (but lovely) "The Three Strangers" is notincluded.

Hardy wrote a lot of garbage short stories in his career - so,kudos to the editor for weeding through them and presenting us with thebest of his short works.

Read his novels.They are much better.

Wonderful little Hardy vistas!
If you are familiar with Hardy, you probably know him as a brilliant novelist and possibly, a poet (he excelled in both areas).However, he shone in the short story form as well, as this collection vividlydemonstrates.This book includes some of Hardy's best known and mostpoignant stories, including the spectacular 'Grave by the Handpost' and the'Fiddler of the Reels,' which echo with the tragic themes prevalent in hislater novels.Hardy's prose style is incredibly moving and poetic in hisshort stories.He used words to serve a purpose, which is more than I cansay for a number of Victorian writers.These stories are a wonderfulintroduction to Hardy if you have not had any exposure to his 'great'works.And don't give up with them!Although his style is moderatelycumbersome, I'm sure you will find his socially-aware ideas surprisinglymodern and unbelievably brutal in their rawness.Hardy is a classic writerwho no one should miss reading.If you want a brilliant introduction tohis work (but beware, reading these stories will drain you!) I highlyrecommend this collection.You will also enjoy it immensely if you've onlyexperienced Hardy the novelist.A note to teachers:I am a high schoolstudent, and I know that my peers would have appreciated Hardy much more ifhe had been presented to them through these tremendous stories, rather thanthrough his novels.I am a devout Hardy fanatic, but know people withshort attention spans have difficulty appreciating his novels.IntroducingHardy to your students through his stories (I particularily recommend theFiddler of the Reels) might allow you to cover more ground. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

The Master in Miniature
Hardy's novels continue to be justly popular and his poetry (which he considered his most important work)has worn well with the critics, but the short stories deserve a much wider audience than they have received. This collection, which contains some of his best, provides a fine introduction to the dark vision of the late Victorian master. The title story is uncharacteristically happy, a pastoral piece in which Hardy tells a comic tale about a young woman's unexpected talent for criminal activity.The other stories are much more representative, being concerned with the perils of love, the cruelty of convention and the tragic vulnerability of human aspirations to the whims of fate. Many of the tales are also wrapped in the Gothic and even grotesque trappings that Hardy seemed to favour when the mood was upon him. This collection gives Bram Stoker and Stephen King a run for their money, featuring a corpse with a stake driven through its heart, a new bride spending her wedding night with her new husband by her side and the corpse of her first husband in the next room, parricide, suicide and kidnapping. The mood of the pieces varies from the sunny high jinks of "The Distracted Preacher" to the wrenching tragedy of "A Son's Veto" and the relentless horror of "The Withered Arm." Overall, this group of tales gives the newcomer to Hardy an excellent introduction to his talents as a storyteller, and fans of his novels will enjoy the opportunity to see the master at work on a smaller stage.

Hardy was NOT a great short story writer...
but these stories, culled from his archives, represent the absolute bestof his short work.

Hardy's tales here evoke early 19th century England;not just the Wessex Heath of Return of the Native (a novel whose openingfour pages are among the best in all of literature) but the small townswhere bootleggers operate and ghosts walk the back lanes.

All thesestories have an "oral" quality about them, as if they were toldby a hoary English gent, his face wreathed in smoke from an old Meerschaum. None of these stories will knock you out, but there were some pleasantsurprises, including "An Imaginative Woman" (the best Hardy shortstory I've read so far),and "A Tragedy of Two Ambitions," whichraises intriguing questions on murder and responsibility.Hardy's favoritetale, "The Son's Veto" is also included, but I found this story,along with "Fiddler of the Reels" to be a dud. "Barbara ofthe House of Grebe" is unintentionally funny - an execrable Gothicexercise, where Hardy sounds more formulaic than ever. Thankfully, thetoo-oft anthologized (but lovely) "The Three Strangers" is notincluded.

Hardy wrote a lot of garbage short stories in his career - so,kudos to the editor for weeding through them and presenting us with thebest of his short works.

Read his novels.They are much better.

Wonderful little Hardy vistas!
If you are familiar with Hardy, you probably know him as a brilliant novelist and possibly, a poet (he excelled in both areas).However, he shone in the short story form as well, as this collection vividlydemonstrates.This book includes some of Hardy's best known and mostpoignant stories, including the spectacular 'Grave by the Handpost' and the'Fiddler of the Reels,' which echo with the tragic themes prevalent in hislater novels.Hardy's prose style is incredibly moving and poetic in hisshort stories.He used words to serve a purpose, which is more than I cansay for a number of Victorian writers.These stories are a wonderfulintroduction to Hardy if you have not had any exposure to his 'great'works.And don't give up with them!Although his style is moderatelycumbersome, I'm sure you will find his socially-aware ideas surprisinglymodern and unbelievably brutal in their rawness.Hardy is a classic writerwho no one should miss reading.If you want a brilliant introduction tohis work (but beware, reading these stories will drain you!) I highlyrecommend this collection.You will also enjoy it immensely if you've onlyexperienced Hardy the novelist.A note to teachers:I am a high schoolstudent, and I know that my peers would have appreciated Hardy much more ifhe had been presented to them through these tremendous stories, rather thanthrough his novels.I am a devout Hardy fanatic, but know people withshort attention spans have difficulty appreciating his novels.IntroducingHardy to your students through his stories (I particularily recommend theFiddler of the Reels) might allow you to cover more ground. ... Read more

Product Description
Among the poetry selections are THE SOULS OF THE SLAIN, SHUT OUT THAT MOON, AT CASTERBRIDGE FAIR, WESSEX HEIGHTS, THE PHANTOM HORSEWOMAN, OLD FURNITURE among many others. All poetry is read by the renown RICHARD BURTON. ... Read more

Book Description

This narrative history of psychology from the ancient Greeks through the present focuses on the main philosophical themes that have guided thinking in psychology, while carefully considering the subject in its religious, social, and literary contexts. Topics include: background to psychology, containing information about the origins, spirituality, the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries; founding psychology, including scientific psychology, and Sigmund Freud and psychoanalysis; and modern psychology. An excellent reference work for psychologists and psychoanalysts.

Customer Reviews (2)

In-depth externalist history
Thomas Leahey's History of Psychology has long been the preferred text for the graduate-level history of psychology course at the Graduate Faculty of Political and Social Science at the New School University in New York. The reasons are its intellectual depth and challenge (appropriate for graduate students) that exceeds other texts; its unsurpassed attentiveness to a wide range of historical scholarship; its emphasis on a strong externalist (contextual) analysis of the history of psychology (especially appropriate here at The New School); and its suitability for separating the serious scholars among the graduate students from those who are not that committed to the intellectual life. The course this book serves plays a strong role in determining which students will continue on in the Ph.D. program. As with any history book for this huge and diverse field scholars will be able to argue about an emphasis or interpretation or omission here and there. But there is no more intellectually spirited writing at the high-end of the currently in press history-of-psychology texts than is found in this book. Some students cave in under the challenge of the book. The truly bright, interested, and motivated students, however, really shine when they study it.

get it--use it
Leaheys book is by far my preference of the history of psych textbooks (I've also examined Brennan's and Kendler's books).I use the book for personal reading and to give a sense of history and develppment to othercourses.His book is especially notable for considering a wide variety ofpsychological ideas, and its consideration of the interaction of cultures,societies, and psychology.the only reason I give it four stars is becauseit's not quite as exciting as a novel and I want to see certain sectionsexpanded - (eg. the intellectual-cultural roots of founding psychologistsin Germany and Vienna) - but the bibliographies are especially meaty for atextbook. ... Read more

Book Description
The noted literary critic presents a brief but trenchant analysis of the author's use of chartacterization in his novels. Originally published in a limited edition of 350 copies.

THIS TITLE IS CITED AND RECOMMENDED BY:Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature. ... Read more

Book Description
In this Readers' Guide, Geoffrey Harvey selects extracts from the most significant, and often brilliant, essays among the huge body of critical writing that Tess of the d'Urbervilles has attracted. He focuses on important textual issues unique to this novel, and contextualizes areas of recurrent debate. Beginning with the sharply conflicting responses of contemporary reviewers in the 1890s, this Guide traces the evolution of Tess criticism up to the most recent work of the 1990s, encompassing the major developments in literary theory - among them humanist formalism, New Criticism, psychoanalysis, deconstruction, political criticism and feminist theory. ... Read more

Book Description
'She looked absolutely pure.Nature, in her fantastic trickery, had set such a seal of maidenhood upon Tess's countenance that he gazed at her with a stupefied air: "Tess- say it is not true!No, it is not true!"'Young Tess Durbeyfield attempts to restore her family's fortunes by claiming their connection with the aristocratic d'Urbervilles.But Alec d'Urberville is a rich wastrel who seduces her and makes her life miserable.When Tess meets Angel Clare, she is offered true love and happiness, but her past catches up with her and she faces an agonizing moral choice.Hardy's indictment of society's double standards, and his depiction of Tess as 'a pure woman', caused controversy in his day and has held the imagination of readers ever since. Hardy thought it his finest novel, and Tess the most deeply felt character he ever created.This unique critical text is taken from the authoritative Clarendon edition, which is based on the manuscript collated with all Hardy's subsequent revisions. ... Read more

Book Description
'Wherefore is light given to him that is in misery, and life unto the bitter in soul?'Jude Fawley, poor and working-class, longs to study at the University of Christminster, but he is rebuffed, and trapped in a loveless marriage.He falls in love with his unconventional cousin Sue Bridehead, and their refusal to marry when free to do so confirms their rejection of and by the world around them.The shocking fate that overtakes them is an indictment of a rigid and uncaring society. Hardy's last and most controversial novel, Jude the Obscure caused outrage when it was published in 1895.This is the first truly critical edition, taking account of the changes that Hardy made over twenty-five years.It includes a new chronology and bibliography and substantially revised notes.Download Description
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. Jude Fawley, a poor villager, wants to enter the divinity school at Christminster. Sidetracked by Arabella Donn, an earthy country girl who pretends to be pregnant by him, Jude marries her and is then deserted. He earns a living as a stonemason at Christminster; there he falls in love with his independent-minded cousin, Sue Bridehead. Out of a sense of obligation, Sue marries the schoolmaster Phillotson, who has helped her. Unable to bear living with Phillotson, she returns to live with Jude and eventually bears his children out of wedlock. Their poverty and the weight of society's disapproval begin to take a toll on Sue and Jude; the climax occurs when Jude's son by Arabella hangs Sue and Jude's children and himself. In penance, Sue returns to Phillotson and the church. Jude returns to Arabella and eventually dies miserably. The novel's sexual frankness shocked the public, as did Hardy's criticisms of marriage, the university system, and the church. Hardy was so distressed by its reception that he wrote no more fiction, concentrating solely on his poetry. Please Note:This book is easy to read in true text, not scanned images that can sometimes be difficult to decipher.The Microsoft eBook has a contents page linked to the chapter headings for easy navigation. The Adobe eBook has bookmarks at chapter headings and is printable up to two full copies per year.Both versions are text searchable. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (133)

Truly a Masterpiece!
Thomas Hardy has accomplished a miracle with this novel.He has written a novel equal in the strength of the ideas, the beauty of the writing, and the compelling nature of the story.If he had only done one of the three well, the book would be worth reading, but having done all three so beautifully has resulted in a masterpiece.

I first read Jude about 10 years ago and recently re-read it.I was even more delighted after reading it again, and plan to read it a third time.

Some of my literary compatriots have been put-off by what they characterize as stiff language in Hardy in general and Jude in particular, but I would encourage anyone to persevere...after a few chapters, it wears-off and then you will thoroughly enjoy the reading!

Jude.....
Thomas Hardy... I wonder what his life must have been like in order for him to write such a tragic book.For those considering it, this book is a romantic tragedy of the highest degree.If your looking for a happily ever after, look elsewhere.But if your looking to run the gamut of human experience in books, this is one you will want to take up, I've never read a book that has taken such a sentimental turn for the worse than this.I hope this helps.

WHY I LOVE THIS BOOK
I love this book because it finally drove Thomas Hardy out of the novel writing business.

I don't know if Hardy was a sadist or a masochist or just chronically depressed and loved to spread the mood around, but either way he had no sense of humor.

However, after exposing myself to TESS OF THE D'URBERVILLES and introducing myself toTHE MAYOR OF CASTERBRIDGE and finding them both miserable company, I thought I'd give Thomas Hardy one more try with the story of a stonemason who has pretentions to learning.

JUDE THE OBSCURE, set in class-structured nineteenth century England, seems to be the model for modern American liberals.They don't seem to think people are capable of rising above "their station" or leaving "their class" the way Jude is thwarted in seeking advancement through learning.

There is one element in the book that rings true.After more than a quarter-century of association with a major American university -- as a student, and a graduate student, and an employee -- I can confirm that the attitudes of the professors of "Christminster" (a thinly-disguised Oxford) have remained constant.Their "class-consciousness" consists of political and intellectual high mindedness but they still think they're better than ordinary people.

The story:Jude wants to become an educated reverend gentleman but since he's self-educated he can't get his foot in the door of the University.He seems religious but it's only skin deep;the first woman who tries to seduce him succeeds without much effort.After faking a pregnancy she forces him to marry her.But Jude, adopting the attitude of his profs, always thinks he's better than she is (and he may be right) and the marriage isn't particularly successful.After they have a disagreement over the proper way to slaughter a pig Jude leaves her and his home town he makes his way to Christminster, where he works as a stonemason, drinks to excess, and meets up with his cousin Sue.Sue is a total nutcase.Her behavior is inexplicable.Though she keeps trying to present herself as liberated and modern, she really has severe sexual hangups.Like his first wife, Arabella, Sue toys with Jude.She keeps him dangling on the end of a chain, and jerking him to her when she needs to talk to someone.She has practically promised herself to another man, but she has some sort of breakdown when Jude finally tells her he married someone else a while back . . . so she rushes into a marriage that she doesn't like, then chucks it (apparently because it has to be consummated) and shacks up with Jude and their burgeoning family, and things really go downhill from there.I won't give away the ending.It's not worth it.But when you read it if you take it seriously you'll just want to go hang yourself up on a meathook.

All I can say is that Hardy strikes me as a shallow man with little understanding of the history and theology he disdains.His understanding of the Middle Ages -- or at least the understanding he puts in the mouths of his characters -- shows an amazing lack of erudition, even for his time.All he seems to have is "common knowledge" (which in this circumstance ranks with "old wives' tales")

SPOILER ALERT

Earlier, I said Hardy didn't have a sense of humor.I was wrong in a way, because, after being appalled by the horrors of TESS and almost sickened by THE MAYOR, I found myself giggling in JUDE every time things took a turn for the worse (here's a hint:in Hardy things never take a turn for the better).By the time I reached the suicidal child and his garrotted siblings, I was positively howling with laughter.Hardy, that stolid Victorian writer, needs finally to go the way of Grand Guignol and Victorian melodrama of the "you must pay the rent" variety.When something so achingly sad makes you laugh until the tears stand in your eyes you know it's a thing that's had its day.

Maybe that's why the thing (I'll forever think of this book as "the thing") garnered bad reviews -- it was simply too absurdly sad even then.Anyway, when people didn't fawn all over his new book Hardy got all hurty and took his ball and went home and devoted himself to plays and poetry.He never wrote another novel and for that we may be truly thankful.

I do some writing myself and thought of doing a satire of Hardy books, a la COLD COMFORT FARM, but I won't.A satire is no good unless someone knows its object, and no one gives a ding-dong for Hardy any more, and why should they?Oh, except for Hardy fans;and considering they actually eat this rubbish with a spoon, they must be dour, prim, humorless persons who wouldn't get a joke if it bit them on the shin.

All I can add is:Hey, Jude, take a sad song and make it better.

Still holds up today
This book is a classic about the effect on people's lives when they choose to engage in behavior that is totally against society's norms.

Story: The story itself consists of a number of vignettes. Each vignette is compelling and shows how the characters mature (or don't) well. The pacing dragged out a bit, but that is to be expected in a character driven story such as this one.

Characters: This is where I am most conflicted. Hardy does a masterful job with the characters of Jude and Sue. Despite having many faults and maddening defects, I was able to feel sympathy for each character as the story progressed. Hardy's secondary characters are less impressive. Arabella is a stock villain, tempting and trapping Jude with no remorse. Phillotson is a stereotypical martyr character. If Phillotson and Arabella would have had some of the same complexities as Jude and Sue, I would have enjoyed this book a great deal more.

This is a very depressing book. Jude's outlook is bleak at the beginning, and it never really improves. Still, it is a commentary on society and living in sin that is still applicable to today's world.

One for the ages
If nothing else, it makes one's own life seem not so tragic! ... Read more

Book Description
Thomas Hardy was the foremost novelist of his time, as well as an established poet. Author of Jude the Obscure and Far from the Madding Crowd, Hardy reflected in his works the dynamics of social, intellectual and aesthetic change in nineteenth-century England. This guide provides students with a lucid introduction to Hardy's life and works and the basis for a sound comprehension of his work, including: * the major aspects of Hardy's life in the context of contemporary culture * a detailed commentary on Hardy's most important work and a critical map of Hardy's complete writing * an outline of the vast body of criticism that has built up around Hardy's work with examples of recent critical debate. Exposition and guide, this volume enables readers to form their own readings of one of the most important writers of the nineteenth century. ... Read more