If books be words then surely 19th century literature is the pinnacle of novel writing. That's certainly not how I felt while reading Jude the Obscure (published 1896), but by the end of the (sometimes excruciating) journey through Jude's tortured life one is left astounded by the artistry of Hardy's language and prose. I get much the same feeling after finishing a Jane Austen or Charles Dickens novel - though those two are much better storytellers. The story can sometimes be 'excrutiating' because the two main protaganists of the novel do irreparable damage to each other out of free will and not just as a result of the pressures of the age they live in. Indeed there are references in the book to how people reading the story years hence would likely understand their position better than the society of the day. Watching someone else's wedding Sue Bridehead says:
Everybody is getting to feel as we do. We are a little beforehand, that's all. In fifty, a hundred, years the descendents of these two will act and feel worse than we. They will see weltering humanity still more vividly than we do now.
She is talking about marriage - something she steadfastly refused to enter with Jude even though they loved each other to the bitter, bitter end - but it was also a metaphor for all of the supposed 'ills' of the day. By the end, I had to admit to feeling more than a degree of schadenfreude at how they crushed themselves, but also glad that I finally did get down to reading it. If you have read other Hardy novels but not this one, then I recommend you do, but if you haven't read any of his other books, this is not an ideal beginner.
Posted by Joe at September 14, 2003 12:14 PM