billybookblog

*contains spoilers* There is a profound sense of irony running through Thomas Hardy’s most celebrated work, Jude the Obscure. As our protagonist, Jude Fawley, seeks a higher existence through a determined and self-productive study in Latin and Greek, having witnessed and been inspired by the angelic haze of the lights of Christminster in the distance, he naïvely believes that; “a rule, prescription, or clue of the nature of a secret cipher” would be sufficient to provide him with the tools that would allow him to rapidly master these foreign tongues. He learns otherwise, however, as the acquisition of knowledge requires tireless study and “plodding” – though Jude, with his consistently impressive sense of dedication, pursues. This pursuit, as it happens, is constantly interrupted…by…well, the struggle – and the struggle is long. To begin with, Jude is duped into marriage by the busty and frivolous Arabella, whose pretentious sucking in of the cheeks in order to feign natural and cherub...