#ThomasHardy

[lforlimbo]

You did not come, And marching Time drew on, and wore me numb,— Yet less for loss of your dear presence there Than that I thus found lacking in your make That high compassion which can overbear Reluctance for pure lovingkindness’ sake Grieved I, when, as the hope-hour stroked its sum, You did not come. You love not me, And love alone can lend you loyalty; –I know and knew it. But, unto the store Of human deeds divine in all but name, Was it not worth a little hour or more To add yet this: Once you, a woman, came To soothe a time-torn man; even though it be You love not me?

[sowingseedsandshootinghoops]

Dreams Deferred: The Destructive Effects of Descrimation

Note on the text: I used Thomas Hardy’s Jude the Obscure as published in 1989 by Bantam Books

What happens to a dream differed?/Does it dry up/like a raisin in the sun?/Or fester like a sore-/and then run?/Does it stink like rotten meat?/Or crust and sugar over like a syrupy sweet?

Maybe it just sags/like a heavy load

Or does it explode? (Langston Hughes, Harlem)

It explodes. It definitely explodes and takes down every vestige of your life with it. Or at least that’s what happens to Jude Fawley, the simple stone mason at the heart of Thomas Hardy’s 1895 novel.

When we first meet Jude he is a smart, kind, and precocious kid who is determined to make a name for himself. Even more specifically he is a working class man who is interested in ancient Latin and Greek who dreams of becoming a scholar. To that end he wants to go to college and get a degree because it “is the necessary hallmark of a man who wants to do anything in teaching” (10).

Now it is immediately obvious that Jude is an extremely hardworking man who is more than willing to put in whatever time and effort he needs to in order to get things done. He knows that in order to even stand a chance of getting into a university and becoming a professor he has to be at least as educated, if not more so, as his upper class counterparts. To that end he finds some books on Ancient Greek and Latin and starts to teach himself, which he is eventually able to master. It is a Herculean task in a lot of ways but eventually he is not able to read and write in those languages, but is able to quote the Bible and all the great Latin and Greek authors in their original language.

Not only is Jude smart but he is also a very kind person who “cannot bear to hurt anything” (17). Time and time again he goes out of his way to help people, even those who, like Arabella, have been really cruel to him. Arabella who calls him a “tender hearted fool” when he is forced to slaughter his beloved pet pig, and later says that there has never been “such a tender fool as Jude [especially if] a woman seems to be in trouble and coaxes him a little” (68, 283). So it’s obvious that Jude is, in every respect, just as worthy as anyone else is of seeing his dreams be fulfilled: “I have understanding as well as you; I am not inferior to you: yea who knoweth not such things as these?” (Job 12:3 as quoted by Jude on page 126).

So when he realizes that his dreams of becoming a scholar and a teaching must be eternally deferred because he is too poor to go to school the result is incredibly harrowing and depressing, and thus begins his gradual descent into his own personal Hell:

This terribly sensible advice exasperated Jude. He knew it was true. Yet it seemed a hard slap after ten years of labor and its effect on him just now was to make him rise recklessly from the table and, instead of reading as usual, [decide to go out and get drunk] (124).

It’s while he’s at the bar, staring at his fellow patrons that he comes upon what in many ways is the central theme of the book:

He began to see that the town life was a book of humanity infinitely more palpitating, varied and compendious than the gown life. These struggling men and women before him were the [real] reality [of the city] of Christminster (125).

It’s at this moment that his life begins the downward trajectory that will result in him dying alone and unhappy. Jude is a shining example of the negative effects that discrimination can have on the marginalized. Because dreams that have been arbitrarily strangled and made to die for reasons outside of a person control do not die quietly. They explode.

[ionbookintros]

Jude The Obscure by Thomas Hardy

[greenjaydeep]

Happiness was but the occasional episode in a general drama of pain. ~ #thomashardy pc: @rudrascape (at Prince of Wales Museum Mumbai) https://www.instagram.com/p/CpgyAI8P9Es/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[dingxiangcheng]

Today marks the 95th anniversary of the day of Thomas Hardy's death. Dear friends, do you love his fictions? I am reading his novel Jude the Obscure. #hardy #tess #thomashardy #literature #tessofthedurbervilles #judetheobscure #british #chinese #fiction https://www.instagram.com/p/CnR-YolLpYc/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[vintagecinemaart]

Tess-Original Vintage Movie Poster for Roman Polanski's Lyrical Adaptation of the Thomas Hardy novel with Peter Firth and Nastassja Kinski. #tess #barrylyndon #thomashardy #romanpolanski #vintagecinemaart #movieposter #wallart https://etsy.me/3jRz08C https://www.instagram.com/p/CnA-Uyfs-43/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[fromme20]

- and yet to every bad, there is a worse 🥀 #ThomasHardy #Poetry#Broken (at London, United Kingdom) https://www.instagram.com/p/ClhZ6s0DiY9/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[bibliobethblog]

Jude The Obscure - one of Thomas Hardy’s best known novels yet it has eluded me until this year. Thanks to the #greatthomashardyreadathon2022 for getting me excited about Hardy again. Well - when I say excited, please don’t take it literally because this book is so melancholy, it might actually put a dampener on any high spirits you may have been feeling! ⁣ ⁣ This is the story of Jude who has always wanted to better himself through education and attending the local college. However, he ends up being thrust into marriage with the scheming Arabella who then abandons him when she finds better prospects. Jude then falls in love with his cousin, Sue. Hopefully he can find happiness? Don’t bet on it. Hardy seems to love torturing his characters and Jude is the next in line to wallow in his own misery. ⁣ ⁣ There are a lot of difficult subjects discussed in this novel that I don’t really want to go into for fear of spoilers but I’m sure you could find out elsewhere if you were concerned before deciding to read it. As I appreciate a dark and dreary narrative I found this book beautifully terrible. Is that even a phrase? It was heartbreaking, gut-wrenching, horribly sad, despairing and thoroughly depressing. ⁣ ⁣ However, Hardy’s stunning character portrayal, particularly of the doomed Jude, is nothing short of perfection. I revelled in every word, each glorious description and I still think about Jude and wonder if there was ever any hope for him. If you’re after a light, fluffy and cheery novel, this might not be for you but I’d like myself, you’re in the right mindset to immerse yourself in a bit of darkness, please give this a try!⁣ ⁣ Five glorious stars 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 ⁣ ⁣ #bookstagram #scottishbookstagrammer #bookreviewer #reviewingbooksonthegram #judetheobscure #thomashardy #thomashardyfans #rediscoveringclassics #fivestarreads2022 #favouriteauthor❤️ #darknovels #depressingnovel #readingandreviewing #readthisbooknow #unforgettablecharacters #memorablereads https://www.instagram.com/p/ClErv6UrmaO/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[bwthornton]

Afterwards by Thomas Hardy #Poetry #Poems #ThomasHardy #Afterwards #poetrycommunity #poetrylovers

[ladylipt]

Moments in the rain ☔

1 - Pride and Prejudice (2005)

2 - Northanger Abbey (2007)

3 - Sense and Sensibility (1995)

4 - Jane Eyre (2006)

5 - Becoming Jane (2007)

6 - Far from the Madding Crowd (2015)

Pictures found on: @pinterest

#janeausten #janeaustenfan #janeite #austenite #austenland #charlottebronte #thomashardy #novels #books #perioddramas #perioddrama #prideandprejudice #northangerabbey #senseandsensibility #janeeyre #becomingjane #farfromthemaddingcrowd

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[con-libros]

A pair of blue eyes: triangulo amoroso termina muy mal

A pair of blue eyes - Thomas Hardy

calificación: 3/5  ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

detalles: Libro físico

sinopsis: La estructura de la novela viene marcada por su protagonista femenina, Elfride Swancourt, encarnación literaria de la mujer de Thomas Hardy, cuya vitalidad y emotividad ejercen una fuerte fascinación e influencia en los hombres. Primero en el joven e inexperto Stephen Smith, alter ego del propio autor, más tarde en el complejo y más maduro Henry Knight, cuya obsesiva insistencia en la virtud y la perfección y su intolerancia ante las debilidades humanas le conducen a la infelicidad.

La quieres leer? cierra esto y ve a buscarla o mándame un mensaje para pasártela en formato digital gratuitamente 👍 Ya la leíste o no la vas a leer y te interesa la opinión? adelante

Opinión y chisme: 👇👇👇

En este libro hay una historia de romance muy interesante, un triangulo amoroso muy dramático y brillante, aun así, hubo cosillas que hicieron difícil conectar fácilmente con la historia.

Lo primero es que el autor se la pasa generalizando sobre el pensamiento femenino, y esto podría dejarlo pasar sino fuesen generalidades anticuadas estilo 'a las mujeres les atrae más el trato rudo' y cosillas similares dichas con seguridad y algo de tacto pero que no pasan desapercibidas, 

también que resalta muchísimo sobre el “valor” de la pureza e inocencia en una mujer, la importancia que se le da a un amor sin experiencia, y el doble estándar antes los escándalos de enamorados (aunque parece que todo esto se mencionó más para una crítica social, Hardy no hace reflexión alguna como lo hace sobre su opinión sobre las mujeres).

Luego esta que hay una buena cuota de relleno, es decir, el autor da muchas vueltas para revelar algún punto; además, con el ritmo impar de pasar a ser medianamente interesante, a lento como tortuga, hizo que esta lectura fuese pesada en su mayoría, y solo a casi más de la mitad es cuando la trama se enciende como para tolerar esa pesadez.

Y sí que se enciende bastante con lo mencionado sobre el romance, llega a atrapar y hasta a frustrar mucho, las actitudes de los personajes son para analizarlos y reprocharlos a cada uno de forma distinta: a Stephen por ser muy blando, a Elfride por ser muy manipulable y a Knight por ser un imbécil, y no quiero decir más por spoilers, pero el drama que se arma realmente estuvo buenísimo con su cuota clásica de tormento típico de los clásicos (Hardy fue muy salvaje para resolver eses triángulo amoroso jsjsjs).

Lo indiscutiblemente bueno es que aquí Hardy se lució con las descripciones de los escenarios, se nota que lo hizo con una gran entusiasmo porque transmite perfectamente el ambiente, incluso en el prefacio comenta en lo que se basó para crear el escenario del romance

(para ser honesta, esperé que en el prefacio hablara sobre la critica social que mencione arriba, pero en fin, no sucedió).

Le doy 3☆, me pareció pesada pero admito que me gustó, en el desarrollo pudo ahorrarse mucho discurso y centrarse en los personajes en vez de generalizar y subestimar, aun así, como triangulo amoroso cumple con las expectativas muy bien, hay malentendidos, secretos y rivalidades dignos de una telenovela, además que creo que puedo analizar bastante sobre todos los temas mencionados en el libro, en general, he disfrutado mucho de la lectura.

🏷  #tapairofblueeyes #ThomasHardy #classicbook #classicbooks #classicalnovel #penguinclassics #penguinpopularclassics #novela #novelaclasica #booklover #bookstagram #bookstagramperu #bookstaexplore .

[actongloves]

"It is difficult for a woman to define her feelings in language which is chiefly made by men to express theirs." - Thomas Hardy, Far From the Madding Crowd

[blossomfully]

“She’s brim full of poetry - actualised poetry, if I may use the expression. She lives what paper poets only write.”

Thomas Hardy, Tess of the D’Urbevilles

[themoderncanadianreader]

Sep. 22

The Darkling Thrush - Thomas Hardy (1990)

The lyrical quality adds flow and innocence to this poem despite the grim content. This contrast shows Hardy's deep trust with faith. The bird in the third stanza, the one that sings through the rubble and its broken surroundings, brings the speaker hope. The bird knows something that the rest of the world does not and offers a glimmer of aspiration for the upcoming century, or does it?

Yes, the bird could be a sign that peace and hope are to come, or it could just simply be a bird. The speaker may be the one looking for a sign and projecting their hope onto this animal. This speaker looks for a reason to be happy among the uncertain times and will find a sign in whatever they want to believe. How do we tell whether this bird symbolizes something, or whether it is just a bird? The ambiguity of this poem is intentional. Hardy wants the reader to come to their own conclusion. Choosing to believe that the bird symbolizes hope means choosing faith.

Faith and religion represent this feeling the speaker has. Finding faith means choosing to look for the positive, blindly believing in the uncertain, and trusting that everything will be okay no matter what.

[lizzielambwriter]

#thomashardy #ruralromance #dvdcollection #recommended (at Whitefield Forest Touring Park. IOW) https://www.instagram.com/p/CQfrVRmq63PSMQ8PipTZD2v2RIpnl4Qg7fYQRw0/?utm_medium=tumblr

[harvard-art-museums-prints]

Samuel Arnold, Thomas Hardy, 18th century, Harvard Art Museums: Prints

Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Gift of Belinda L. Randall from the collection of John Witt Randall

https://www.harvardartmuseums.org/collections/object/243964