Resumen
Resumen de Jude el oscuro
Para quién es
For readers who love Victorian novels with a social conscience, and for anyone who has ever felt shut out of a place they were sure they belonged.
De qué trata este libro
Jude the Obscure is a novel by Thomas Hardy, first published in book form in 1895 after running as a serial in a magazine. It is the last novel Hardy wrote. He set it in Wessex, his name for the south-west of England, and he built it around a poor young man who wants an education that his class is not supposed to have.
The hero is Jude Fawley, a stonemason's apprentice and orphan who teaches himself Latin and Greek while he works. He dreams of Christminster, Hardy's version of Oxford, where he hopes to become a scholar and perhaps a clergyman. Two women pull at his life in different ways. One is the earthy, practical Arabella. The other is his clever and restless cousin, Sue Bridehead.
The book was attacked when it appeared, because it questioned marriage, the church and the walls around university life. Hardy always said he had only told what he saw. You get an honest story of hope meeting rules that were written long before Jude was born. Let us begin where Jude begins, as a lonely boy in a village, looking at a far horizon.
En este resumen
- 1A village boy dreams of ChristminsterFree
- 2Arabella catches him with a trick
- 3Christminster shuts its gates on him
- 4Sue Bridehead enters his life
- 5Sue's marriage to Phillotson goes wrong
- 6Jude and Sue defy the world
- 7A mind shut out by class
- 8Marriage, faith and the body
- 9How Hardy builds his tragic design
Idea clave 1 de 9
A village boy dreams of Christminster
The story opens in the village of Marygreen, where the schoolmaster, Richard Phillotson, is leaving to pursue a degree at Christminster. The boy Jude Fawley, an orphan living with his great-aunt Drusilla, watches him go. He is a quiet child with a tender heart. Hardy shows this early when the farmer who hires him to scare birds beats him for feeding the rooks instead.
After Phillotson has gone, Jude writes to him for grammar books. Jude is thrilled, and the books arrive in due course. He finds them harder than he expected, because he had thought a language could be unlocked like a puzzle. Learning that every word must be learned one at a time is his first hard lesson in what study costs.
He is not discouraged for long. As a young man he works as a baker's delivery boy and then as a stonemason. He studies at night, with Latin and Greek beside him on the cart and the bench. His great-aunt tells him that Christminster is no place for the likes of him, but this only makes the place shine more.
On a clear day, from a high spot near the village, Jude can sometimes see the lights of Christminster far off. He has never been there. He builds it in his mind as a city of learning, a place where honest effort is rewarded and the mind is free. Hardy lets us see that this picture is made of longing and not of knowledge.
That gap between the dream and the real city is the engine of the book. Jude's hope is moving because it is so pure and so poorly informed. You will want him to succeed from the very first chapter, and Hardy knows it. The pull of that wish is what makes everything later hurt.
That’s 1 of 9 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
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Who’s who
- Jude Fawley
- A poor orphan and apprentice stonemason, Jude teaches himself ancient languages and dreams of studying at Christminster.
- Sue Bridehead
- Jude's clever, unconventional cousin works in a church art shop and questions the rules governing women and marriage.
- Arabella Donn
- A practical, bold pig farmer's daughter, Arabella attracts Jude while wanting comfort and pleasure rather than scholarship.
- Richard Phillotson
- The village schoolmaster inspires Jude's scholarly ambitions and later becomes Sue's employer and husband.
- Aunt Drusilla Fawley
- Jude's stern great-aunt raises him in Marygreen and discourages his hopes of entering Christminster's scholarly world.
- Little Father Time
- A solemn child in Jude's household, Little Father Time seems unusually burdened by the adults' worries.
About this edition
Every format is free to start, and print and large print are at cost.
- LengthAbout 150,000 words
- Reading timeAbout 10 h
- Listening time16 h 35 min
- FormatseBook, large-print eBook, audiobook, 15-minute summary
- LanguagesEnglish and 13 other languages
Questions about Jude el oscuro
What is Jude the Obscure about?
It tells of Jude Fawley, a poor stonemason who dreams of studying at Christminster, a city based on Oxford. His hopes are blocked by class, and his love life with Arabella and Sue is shaped by marriage laws and social judgment.
Who is Sue Bridehead in Jude the Obscure?
Sue is Jude's cousin, a quick-minded, independent woman who works in a church art shop and later trains as a teacher. She questions marriage and religion, and her tangled feelings for Jude drive much of the plot.
Why was Jude the Obscure so controversial?
When it came out in 1895, many readers were shocked by its frank treatment of marriage, sex and religion. Critics attacked it, and the reaction is one reason Hardy stopped writing novels and turned to poetry.
Is Jude the Obscure based on a true story?
It is fiction, though Hardy drew on real places and his own feelings of being shut out of university. Christminster is a version of Oxford, and Wessex is his name for the south-west of England.
Is Jude the Obscure hard to read?
The language is clear, and the story moves steadily. The story is sad and serious.