by Thomas Hardy
—from Savoy (October 1896)
Questions
1. Is it possible that some of what was considered indecent in Jude the Obscure lies in Hardy’s characterizations of women? A critic could argue that Sue is frigid and Arabella a calculating temptress.
2. Do you agree that a novel can serve as a warning, and therefore that one of literature’s purposes is to prepare readers for difficult situations ? Who is the real audience of Jude the Obscure, young readers or older ones? Is the question of audience a relevant one?
3. Does Jude the Obscure have a moral—or, at least, a message? If so, what is it?
4. Are the characterizations of the main characters realistic or at least plausible—or has Hardy skewed them to make a point?
FOR FURTHER READING
Biographies
Gibson, James. Thomas Hardy: A Literary Life. Basingstoke, England: Macmillan, 1996.
Hands, Timothy. A Hardy Chronology. Basingstoke, England: Macmillan, 1992.
Millgate, Michael. Thomas Hardy: A Biography. New York: Random House, 1982.
Contemporary Reviews of Hardy
Cox, R.G., ed. Thomas Hardy:The Critical Heritage. London: Routledge and K. Paul, 1970.
Lerner, Laurence, and John Holmstrom, eds. Thomas Hardy and His Readers : A Selection of Contemporary Reviews. New York: Barnes and Noble, 1968.
Critical Studies
Bayley, John. An Essay on Hardy. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1978.
Beer, Gillian. Darwin’s Plots: Evolutionary Narrative in Darwin, George Eliot, and Nineteenth-Century Fiction. Second edition. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000.
Boumelha, Penny. Thomas Hardy and Women: Sexual Ideology and Narrative Form. Totowa, NJ: Barnes and Noble, 1982.
Garson, Marjorie. Hardy’s Fables of Integrity: Woman, Body, Text. Oxford: Clarendon Press, and New York, Oxford University Press, 1991.
Kramer, Dale, ed. The Cambridge Companion to Thomas Hardy. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999.
____, and Nancy Marck, eds. Critical Essays on Thomas Hardy: The Novels. Boston: G. K. Hall, 1990.
Miller, J. Hillis. Thomas Hardy: Distance and Desire. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1970.
Pite, Ralph. Hardy’s Geography: Wessex and the Regional Novel. Basingstoke, UK, and New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002.
Wright, T. R. Hardy and the Erotic. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1989.
Works Cited in the Introduction
Chekhov, Anton. Plays. Translated by Elisaveta Fen. Harmondsworth, England: Penguin, 1959.
Hardy, Thomas. “The Profitable Reading of Fiction.” Forum (March 1888), pp. 64, 70. Reprinted in Thomas Hardy’s Personal Writings: Prefaces, Literary Opinions, Reminiscences, edited by Harold Orel. 1966. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1990.
Slack, Robert C. “The Text of Hardy’s Jude the Obscure.” Nineteenth Century Fiction 11 (1957), pp. 261-275.
Purdy, Richard Little. Thomas Hardy:A Bibliographical Study. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1954. Reprint: Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1968.
a From the Bible (Apocrypha), 1 Esdras 4:26—32 (King James Version; henceforth, KJV).
b Hardy models this fictional city on Oxford.
c Baggage.
d Urchin or scamp (dialect).
e Two-towered.
f Stack of hay.
ƗA rook is a bird like an American crow.
g Serious (dialect).
†Get-up-and-go (dialect).
h Chimaeras are fire-breathing she-monsters in Greek mythology; Herne the Hunter is a ghost in medieval legend; and Christian is a character in John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress (1678).
i Slouching (dialect).
j Dwellers in farm cottages.
k Popular but outdated annotated editions of Latin classics.
l In Virgil’s Aeneid (19 B.C.), the Queen of Carthage, who commits suicide when abandoned by Aeneas.
m Poem by the Roman poet Horace, commissioned by the emperor Augustus in 17 B.C. to be sung at a festival known as the Secular Games.
ƗOpening line of “Carmen Sæculare”; see note above.
n Early-nineteenth-century edition of Homer that Hardy read.
†Ancient Greek dialect.
‡Eighteenth-century edition of the Greek New Testament.
§Theologians of the early Christian church.
o Ancient Greek historian.
†Doctor of Divinity.
p Intently (dialect).
†Potentially (Latin).
q Grease for waterproofing.
r Vestal virgin, one of the priestesses who guarded the temple of Vesta in ancient Rome.
s The New Testament (ancient Greek).
t Hurry up (dialect).
u Ancient earthwork made for defense, prior to Roman times.
v Public announcement of a proposed marriage.
w Trap.
x Twenty pounds.
y Black puddings.
z Glare (dialect).
aa Stringy fat (dialect).
ab Curtain hung over a fireplace; functions like a fan.
ac Dutch philosopher of the seventeenth century.
ad From “Songs before Sunrise,” by nineteenth-century poet A. C. Swinburne. †Their nearness made the first steps of their acquaintance. In time love grew (from Metamorphoses, A.D. 17-18, by the Roman poet Ovid).
ae By legend, a poor boy who went to London, prospered, and became Lord Mayor. †Suburb of Oxford; in the biblical book of Genesis 21:14, Beersheba is the desert where Hagar wanders after Abraham sends her away.
af Adorned with Gothic ornaments.
ƗBay windows that project from walls.
ag Edward Gibbon, author of The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1766-1788).
ah Probably John Henry Newman, nineteenth-century theologian and one of the founders of the Tractarian, or Oxford, Movement (see endnote 4 on p. 422).
ai John Wesley, eighteenth-century religious leader and Methodist organizer.
aj Bottom part of a wall that projects outward.
ak From Essays in Criticism, by the nineteenth-century poet and critic Matthew Arnold. †Sir Robert Peel, mid-nineteenth-century prime minister of England. ‡Edward Gibbon, from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1766-1788). §From “By the Fire-Side” (1853), a poem by Robert Browning.
al John Henry Newman; the reference is to his autobiography, Apologia pro Vita Sua (1864).
am From Christian Year (1827), by John Keble.
an Essayist, poet, and statesman Joseph Addison (1672-1719); a contributor to the periodical The Spectator.
ao From “Evening Hymn” (late seventeenth century), by Bishop Thomas Ken.
ap Projections, often carved in the form of heads, that stick out from a wall.
aq “Read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest” is a quote from the Book of Common Prayer, used for services in the Church of England.
ar From the Bible, Ecclesiastes 7:12.
as Was acting in plays or pantomimes, which would have been considered improper.
at The opening words of the second part of Psalm 119 (Latin version); these words and those that follow translate to English as: “Wherewithal [by what means] shall a young man cleanse his way?” (KJV).
au Reference to the Bible, Psalms 133:3: “As the dew of Hermon, and as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion: for there the Lord commanded the blessing, even life for evermore” (KJV).
av Cyprus, home of Venus in Greek mythology, invokes physical love; Galilee, home of Jesus in the Bible, invokes spiritual love.
aw From “Hymn of Proserpine” (1866), a poem by A. C. Swinburne.
ax Scene of Christ’s crucifixion.
ay Respectively, poems by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow; George Gordon, Lord Byron; and Edgar Allan Poe.
az Spirit of the place (Latin).
ba Reference to the novel Robinson Crusoe (1719), by Dani
el Defoe.
bb From the poem “Gotterdammerung” by nineteenth-century German poet Heinrich Heine.
bc Drunken binge.
bd The Nicene and Apostles’ Creeds are declarations of the Christian faith.
be Popular nineteenth-century song.
bf In the Bible, John 4:6, Christ sits by a well.
†Well-known Roman sculptural grouping from the first century A.D. depicting the struggles of the Trojan priest Laocoon, as recounted in Virgil’s Aeneid (19 B.C.).
bg Fragment from the poem “Hephaestion,” by Sappho, a female poet of ancient Greece; the classicist H. T. Wharton collected and translated her work in the late nineteenth century.
bh Final blow (French).
bi Reference to Jesus Christ.
bj Teacher-training school.
bk Salisbury Cathedral.
bl Purple-red.
bm Well-known buildings in the county of Wiltshire: Wardour Castle dates from the end of the fourteenth century; Fonthill is an enormous house commissioned by novelist William Beckford, completed in 1796.
bn Italian painters of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
bo Sue prefers the secular subjects of these English painters, Sir Peter Lely and Sir Joshua Reynolds.
bp Nonconformist or outcast, referring to Ishmael; in the Bible, Genesis 16—25, Ishmael is the son of Abraham, who banishes him, with Ishmael’s mother, Hagar, to the desert.
bq The figures appear in one of the ancient Greek friezes from the Parthenon in Athens; known as the Elgin Marbles, the friezes are on display in the British Museum in London.
br Sixpenny-worth.
bs Many of these authors were considered “indecent” by Victorian standards.
bt From “Too Late” (1864), a poem by Robert Browning.
bu From “Hymn to Proserpine” (1866), a poem by A. C. Swinburne.
bv Following the liberal, anti-authoritarian teachings of the eighteenth-century French philosopher Voltaire.
bw From the Bible, Song of Solomon 6:1.
bx In Greek mythology, a youth of such extraordinary beauty that Zeus brought him to heaven to be cupbearer to the gods.
by Light refreshment before breakfast.
bz Roman goddess of love; Sue invokes her as representing true love as opposed to mere animal attraction.
ca British term for Gothic style of architecture, used because vertical lines are predominant.
cb From “The Worst of It” (1864), a poem by Robert Browning.
cc “Dissenting gentleman” refers to a nonconformist opposed to the Anglican Church.
cd The “Enemy” is the devil; Jude thinks that being near Sue would afford him the chance to resist sexual temptation.
ce From The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1766-1788), by Edward Gibbon.
cf From “Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce” (1643-1644), a pamphlet by the poet John Milton.
cg Michael Drayton, a seventeenth-century English poet.
ch King of England from 975 to 978.
‡King Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries in 1536.
ci Reference to the Apocrypha, books of the Bible that are of doubtful authenticity and therefore often not accepted as part of scripture.
cj Sue asks Jude if he is studying a theological textbook.
ck Musical term referring to the rapid repetition of tones.
cl Reference to the Bible, Genesis 37:5-10, in which Joseph tells his brothers of his dreams.
cm People who prepare corpses for burial.
cn By the very nature of the case (Latin).
co Jeremy Taylor, George Butler, Philip Doddridge, William Paley, Edward Pusey, and John Henry Newman were theologians of the seventeen, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries.
cp That is, pure and holy.
cq From John Stuart Mill’s On Liberty (1859).
cr Argument that depends on an established authority (Latin).
cs Wilhelm von Humboldt, a German diplomat of the early nineteenth century.
ct From “Shaftesbury Fair,” by William Barnes, a Dorset poet.
cu Sure enough (dialect).
cv Laon and Cythna are lovers in “The Revolt of Islam” (1817), a poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley; Paul and Virginia are lovers in the novel Paul et Vrginie (1788), by Bernardin de Saint-Pierre.
cw Large glass.
cx (dialect).
cy From the “The Statue and the Bust” (1855), a poem by Robert Browning.
cz Phillotson is quoting from “By the Fire-Side” (1853), a poem by Robert Browning.
da Traveling salesmen who offered bargains.
db From Meditations (A.D. 167), by Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, translated by George Long.
dc Taking effect at a specified time.
dd Greek goddess of divine justice and vengeance.
de Loner.
df From “Freedom and Love,” an early-nineteenth-century poem by Thomas Campbell.
dg Lower-class bar or pub.
†From the Bible, Job 3:3.
dh Greek muse of tragedy.
di From the Bible, Deuteronomy 20:7.
dj Book of Common Prayer.
ƗFitting (dialect).
dk Hanged on a gallows.
ƗJude invokes the Bible, 1 Kings 13:34: “And this thing became sin unto the house of Jeroboam, even to cut it off, and to destroy it from off the face of the earth” (KJV).
dl Doing the same thing they’re doing.
dm From “The Revolt of Islam” (1818), a poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley.
dn If it isn’t (dialect).
do Cliild’s game.
dp Drunk.
dq Large cups filled to the rim.
dr Foot; the devil is said to have a cloven foot.
ds Biologist Thomas Huxley came up with the term “agnostic” in 1869 to define the skeptical belief that the existence of God cannot be proved or disproved.
dt Jude quotes from the Bible; the first passage is from 2 Corinthians 7:2 and the second is from Judges 17:6.
du Process of facing a brick wall with a thin veneer of stone.
dv Black mourning dress.
dw Temporary fence that surrounds a construction site and is often covered with advertisements and other signs.
dx Stall for business.
dy Church that is not Anglican or Roman Catholic.
dz Eat fastidiously (dialect); here, figuratively, the term implies that the women are genteel.
ea From the Bible, Esther 14:2; chapter 14 is within a book called The Rest of Esther, part of the Apocrypha.
eb From “Too Late,” a poem by Robert Browning.
ec Robes for graduates receiving doctorates at Oxford are scarlet; earning a doctorate had been Jude’s ambition.
ed In the Bible, Acts 14: 8-11, the Lycaonians witness Saint Paul heal a crippled man.
ee From the Bible, Ecclesiastes 6:12.
ef A lens in a telescope or microscope.
eg Latin declensions; commencement services at Oxford are still conducted in Latin.
eh An allusion to the Bible, Luke 2:41; Mary and Joseph take the child Jesus to the Passover festival in Jerusalem every year.
ei A way of saying from bad to worse: Caiaphas, the Jewish high priest, handed Jesus to Pilate, the Roman governor who sentenced him to crucifixion.
ej Time when a pregnant woman delivers.
ek From the Bible, 1 Corinthians 4:9.
el The clergymen are arguing a theological point; in despair at their pettiness, Jude cites the Bible, Romans 8:22: “The whole creation groaneth” (KJV).
