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Original poster

I need to decide what to read next: The Phantom of the Opera or Jude the Obscure

58 replies

StColumbofNavron · 28/08/2023 18:05

Relevant information

  • I do like a bleak tale
  • I have loved (as much as one can) Tess and Return of the Native
  • I like Gothic
  • I want something all encompassing (I've been reading a lot of light, breezy fiction lately that was fine but didn't sweep me up)
  • a GoodReads review compared the Phantom to Heathcliff which almost swung it for me as I adore Wuthering Heights

So which shall I opt for?

OP posts:
CurlewKate · 29/08/2023 13:44

@RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie Sebastian Flyte.

Oto · 29/08/2023 13:39

Jude

EineReiseDurchDieZeit · 29/08/2023 13:37

@StColumbofNavron

Just looked up my review from 2021, it was strongly worded Grin

RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie · 28/08/2023 21:59

EVERYONE in W Heights.

Original poster
StColumbofNavron · 28/08/2023 21:53

Nellie friggin Dean - what a bloody shit stirrer!

OP posts:
CurlewKate · 28/08/2023 21:52

@RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie I just adore Elinor! Romeo's a good shout. But the bloody nurse goes first.
Catherine Earnshaw.

JaneyGee · 28/08/2023 21:43

Jude the Obscure is a classic – one of those books everybody ought to try and read at least once (like Great Expectations or Pride and Prejudice). Weirdly, I've never found Hardy that depressing. I think it's because he wasn't a particularly unhappy man himself. His view of life was utterly bleak (he was a follower of Schopenhauer), but he seems to have enjoyed it nonetheless. In his autobiography Goodbye to All That, Graves describes meeting Hardy, who was in his 80s at the time, and finding him quite bright and chatty. Other very depressing writers (Joseph Conrad, Samuel Beckett and Philip Larkin spring to mind) are more depressing to read because they were themselves depressives. And when the author is a depressive it kind of seeps into the work.

Original poster
StColumbofNavron · 28/08/2023 21:21

I actually am already aware of the 'moment' in Jude or certainly the phrase and its implication. I was not aware of Tess at all. I actually could not speak for about an hour after I finished that. I do agree with Remus. Alec and Angel were both despicable in their own way, but for me Angel is the real villain of the piece.

OP posts:
MarciaSaysANumber · 28/08/2023 21:17

Good choice! But do remember not to do any flicking through out of curiosity…

Original poster
StColumbofNavron · 28/08/2023 21:15

Iateallthechocolate · 28/08/2023 21:02

Jude the Obscure is on my excellent books but too traumatic to read again list, along with The Kite Runner and Schindlers Ark.
You could always read Jude and then watch Phantom at the theatre to cheer yourself up.

Hahahaha.. I have actually seen Phantom.

OP posts:
RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie · 28/08/2023 21:02

Looking forward to the review @StColumbofNavron .

Iateallthechocolate · 28/08/2023 21:02

Jude the Obscure is on my excellent books but too traumatic to read again list, along with The Kite Runner and Schindlers Ark.
You could always read Jude and then watch Phantom at the theatre to cheer yourself up.

RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie · 28/08/2023 21:01

AnneShirleysNewDress · 28/08/2023 20:59

For me, Jude is a book you'll never want to read twice. Bleak does not come close.

Add 'The Grapes of Wrath' to that list, too. Devastating.

AnneShirleysNewDress · 28/08/2023 20:59

For me, Jude is a book you'll never want to read twice. Bleak does not come close.

MelonsOnSaleAgain · 28/08/2023 20:59

Jude the obscure haunts me

Original poster
StColumbofNavron · 28/08/2023 20:58

Well, it looks Jude is the winner.

@RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie see you on 50 books with my view.

OP posts:
RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie · 28/08/2023 20:57

CurlewKate · 28/08/2023 20:45

@RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie
"Although Angel bloody Clare probably needs slapping more than any other character in the whole of literature."
Now there's a discussion! I offer Marianne Dashwood as my contender.

Awwww. I like Marianne - she's a bit more human than Elinor.

Romeo

TikTokCat · 28/08/2023 20:52

I loved Return of the Native
Read Jude

WinterFireJanuaryEmbers · 28/08/2023 20:48

Jude. Get it over with so you can recover before you're on your deathbed.

😂

CurlewKate · 28/08/2023 20:45

@RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie
"Although Angel bloody Clare probably needs slapping more than any other character in the whole of literature."
Now there's a discussion! I offer Marianne Dashwood as my contender.

Notquitegrownup2 · 28/08/2023 20:40

Tess is a lot, but it has all sorts of layers. I love it. Angel Clare is brilliantly written - we are meant to want to slap him. I spend the whole book shouting at different characters - and it still ends the same each time. Reread it several times.

But Jude . . . (Shudders at the memory.) It's the bleakest thing ever. No shouting there. Just a whimper and the wish never to have started it. It's a black hole of a book, sucking all life, all hope, all joy into it. You've been warned!

RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie · 28/08/2023 19:29

Jude and Tess are equally A LOT, I'd say. Although Angel bloody Clare probably needs slapping more than any other character in the whole of literature.

Judashascomeintosomemoney · 28/08/2023 19:23

EineReiseDurchDieZeit · 28/08/2023 19:16

Jude The Obscure is A LOT, I have Phantom on TBR

It is, but not as much of ‘A Lot’ as Tess of the D’Urbervilles. Yeah, I’d go for Jude.

JaninaDuszejko · 28/08/2023 19:21

Good Jude is depressing and the characters are annoying. I read it when I was young, I don't think I could bear it now.

TheFallenMadonna · 28/08/2023 19:18

My English teacher told me to read Jude the Obscure when I was 15. Good heavens.