Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy

Jude the Obscure was recommended to me about a year ago, I think by princeoigan. I finally managed to start it this week and I have to say I loved it. I've not read any Thomas Hardy before, though I did see a nice TV version of The Mayor of Castorbridge which I quite enjoyed. In many ways the characters in the stories reminded me of the characters in H.G. Wells' novels, particularly Love and Mr. Lewisham and Mr. Polly. The late Victorians struggling with social constraints that they didn't feel and old fashioned ideas they no longer wanted to be part of. The disastrous early marriage which causes later hardship. It was a very familiar setting for me though Hardy's characters were rural and wanting to be classicists whereas Wells is more urban and scientific.

I did see a little of Bill and I in the main characters. Jude being the self taught classicist and Sue being the rational sceptic who just couldn't understand the gender differences and difficulties of her time. Sue was just a fascinating character to me, she seemed similar to Stephen from The Well of Loneliness in so many ways, yet as she was written from an outsiders perspective there was no way to see what was really going on in her mind. Instead she came across as cold and unloving, because she couldn't love the men back. I like the fact that she had a tragic back story, I don't like the idea that she was doomed to convention. Though in a way I think it says more about the times, that someone with independent ideas will be crushed, rather than a weakness of her character.

The ending with Jude's death seemed, especially when compared with Wells' similar novels, a tad contrite. The story was finished and so it had to end. It made it seem a lot less real than Wells' novels which always seem more true and less melodramatic, and because of that more tragic in their portrayal of human nature.

Though I did at times enjoy the melodrama. I thought the hopelessly depressed child was great. He won me over when they took him to the flower show and rebuked him for not being able to enjoy himself and he said that he'd like to but all he could think about was how the flowers would be dead in a few days. Murdering his brothers and sisters and committing suicide might have been a bit overdone, but it made sense to me. I also shocked my co-workers a bit because at the end of lunch they asked me how I liked the book, and I said that the children had just died, and they were shocked to see me grinning.

The attitudes towards marriage were interesting within the book. The whole idea of the rigidity of marriage was obvious, however it seemed like it was a new invention, the older women would talk about how 50 years ago no one took things that seriously and people were free to do what they wanted. I thought this was quite interesting as the very moral and strict idea of marriage that we have today comes from this Victorian ideal, yet the Victorian's propaganda machine worked to the point where nowadays we think it was always that way, and that the situation is a degradation from the higher ideals of the past. Not just the fact that a society invented a complexity unrealistic set of moral codes that no one wanted or enjoyed, couldn't live with, and so were discarded as much as possible.

I've been feeling particularly melancholy the past few days. I don't know if it's a result of reading the book. I think partly, struggling against the norms of society in what is often a hopeless way is something I readily agree with. I feel like I've had to conform more since moving back here. I don't know if Seattle was just more accepting, or the circles I moved in were. (I'm thinking jobs, neighbourhoods etc, not friends). But whether my moods were inspired by the book or coincided with it I can't tell. Either way there was something true and inspiring about it for me. I think things have improved since it was written, though probably not as much as I'd like. Though definitely a lot further than they have for queer relationships.

An excellent thought provoking book. I think I prefer Wells, but it was good to see another perspective, one where the same struggles were going on. I think I will end up reading more Hardy. But should really read more of the books I have already bought first.

Feeling productive

So far today I have managed to incorporate all my notes into the main structure of my dissertation. I realised that nearly all the notes I have so far fall into 2 of my 4 possible chapters. The Chapters on the poetry of whores, and the ordination of the princesses are virtually none existant.

Chapter 1 discussing the Tang, Women in the Tang, Taoism, historical overview, Taoist Priests and Taoism in the Tang, 7382 words (mostly complete but probably twice as long as should be).

Chapter 2, Hagiographies of Tang women, 5,222 words, probably only half way complete, about as long as it should be already.

Altogether dissertation is currently 12,500 words. Already 2,500 words too long, but I'm guessing it'll get up to 20,000 words before I get to the proper editing stage.