I did it, I read Jude The Obscure and now I have sunk into a deep existential sadness

I can't bring myself to read Jude, having seen the film. What a horrible thing to imagine. Is George R R Martin a descendant of Hardy?

And the Return of the Native was dreadful as well.

[stands to one side with sterile copy of The Code of the Woosters]

Once spiritually resuscitated, you could consider a longer course of therapy via reading Claire Tomalin's biography of Hardy, which would lead you to conclude that the old misery-peddler had a pretty nice life, all in all. (Perhaps not quite so much his wives...)

Oh god, I read Jude as a mildly depressed teenager. Even then it made me want to top myself. Goodness knows what it would do to me now I have children. I vetoed Tess for our book club because I wasn't sure we'd all make it out the other end with our sanity intact!

He's not a cheerful soul is he, Hardy.

(grrr bloody phone) sorry, usually go running to something gentle like Cold Comfort Farm when I'm done.

Hardy is my favourite author, and 'Jude' is my favourite book - but then, I'm a bit of a miserable old Goth at heart :)
So many of its themes are still relevant, unfortunately. I re-read it often, but usually

May I recommend John Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath to follow OP?

The two together do seem to explain how we got where we are today pretty much wrapped up imho.

Hmmmm yes it is guttingly awful but I do have to say I find Hardy a bit formulaic in his endless sad stories. It's as though (and I think this is what he did?) He's cut and pasted a variety of sad newspaper tales together to make one utterly depressing lifestory out of twenty depressing stories. Just imagine the last year's worth of Daily Mail uk interest stories turned into one story and voila, a Hardy novel emerges
Under the Greenwood Tree must have been written on a good day :)

Hmmmm yes it is guttingly awful but I do have to say I find Hardy a bit formulaic in his endless sad stories. It's as though (and I think this is what he did?) He's cut and pasted a variety of sad newspaper tales together to make one utterly depressing lifestory out of twenty depressing stories. Just imagine the last year's worth of Daily Mail uk interest stories turned into one story and voila, a Hardy novel emerges
Under the Greenwood Tree must have been written on a good day :)

I rather liked Hardy when I was a teen - I would wallow in the misery. My DM had many of his books and I steadily worked my way through them between the ages of 14 and 18. I liked The Smiths too.

Wouldn't touch Hardy with a bargepole now. I need a little sunshine in my life at the moment.

Although I do enjoy the image of Gabriel Oak deflating sheep!

I must have read this about ten times, it was an A level text for me and then reappeared as part of Eng degree. Reading this at an influential age may explain a lot about why I'm such a miserable bastard!
I kept wanting to give Jude a shake. Hanging out in university towns is not the way to get accepted for a degree course!

Jude is my absolutely favourite book. Have read it many, many times. I think that it still has so much to say about futility, social expectations and the whole battleground of social mobility.

Sue was a broken woman who felt that their tragedies were divine punishment. Her only option was to undo the "wrongs" that she and Jude had committed. She was a victim of societal and religious pressures and constraints and was, most likely, mentally ill by this point, pushed over the edge by a combination of grief, guilt and poverty.

Never finished it, but The Mayor of Casterbridge makes me cry!

My copy of Jude the obscure has crinkly pages due to all the crying. I also read it pre-children and don't dare touch it now.

I'm intrigued, one to add to the kindle pile, I vaguely remember my sister telling me it was very depressing.

She was a defeated woman. She thought she was right. But events have shown her that she was wrong and there was only one way out and that was to repent and go back to her husband. She had no choice. In fact she might even have felf grateful that this last choice was left to her. I don't know. It's grim beyond belief.

I don't know yellowraincoat... yes, it might have been considered normal by many people - staying loyal to your husband, not so sure about staying loyal/tied to your seducer (Tess) - but if someone like Sue went against these social norms to live with someone and have children with him, would she really have decided several years down the line that the social norms were right after all? If she felt that strongly about God, it took her a long time to discover it!

It's a particularly bleak view of religion, education and womanhood (among others) and worst of all I don't think Hardy was wrong in his diagnosis. I've never been able to properly think about this novel. It's just so scary. And I don't dare to read it again, so shall be condemned to half-understanding the thing.

I think that would have been considered fairly normal, wouldn't it?

I think Sue feels that she's being punished by God for forsaking her marriage. That's why she goes back to him.

Not just a question of social rules and constraints though - Sue, and Tess, and others of Hardy's women, consider themselves bound to the first woman they married/were seduced by. Sue has many years with Jude and then goes back to her husband as she still considers herself married to him .

I couldn't bring myself to like a single character in it and I found Sue very manipulative.

I was happy a few minutes ago now I am looking round for somewhere to hang the rope.

I spose you could sort of see her point, it was tragic for her as well. She had the security of ol' husbandy bloke and by going off with Jude, she was sort of condemning herself to a life of misery.

Just a big old tragedy all round.

Ooh, yellowraincoat, missed your comment. That's two of us in the shake-Sue-club then .

That Sue needed a good shake though, didn't she? Hardy's women are completely weird when it comes to marriage.

Love the book - one of my favourites. Not into comedy though, me .

The "done because we are too many" bit was somewhat diluted for me as I was lying on the sofa engrossed in my reading, when DH came up and tried to make inane conversation . Had to make him go away!