not tonight
So I've just had a very early day at work and have to do it again tomorrow, yet here I am about to fall asleep. But I feel the subject of the book I am currently enjoying should be discussed.
I've always read in during breaks at work, wherever I've worked because I find it's the best way to escape from your work mental state and relax. Sometimes I entirely forget I'm at work which has its pros and cons. Recently I started Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy and reading Hardy again is massively improving my mind and giving me more to think about overall. Just the name Hardy is intensely satisfying. There's nothing like having a favourite author. Hardy har har!
However, nearly all Hardy novels are tragedies. They're brilliantly detailed, the characters are so beautifully soulful and I personally can never guess the ending. It may have something to do with being from a entirely different time period as they're based in the Victorian era; therefore what may be a normal ending for me may be polar opposites in those times. For example, ending alone after being widowed would actually be marrying again for a status and less fallen angel lifestyle. Both tragic but worlds apart. I'd like to hope everyone would someday read something by Hardy but I will spoil what I have read so far anyway. Actually the back of the gorgeous black jacket Penguin Classic style gives away the majority of what I have read, bar one dead pig. Literally.
A boy named Jude Fawley dreams and aspires to educate himself and move to a place not far from him called Christminster. A teacher he once knew moved their himself to further himself in society and he took inspiration and pretty much made him his idol. When the boy is nineteen he has his first encounter with a lady named Arabella, beautiful name but just wait. After their first encounter they decide to meet again and what Jude had hoped would only be a stroll turned into a 3 mile hike towards a fire (possible representation of his ultimate demise by Arabella). When they're walking home from the now in ashes fire, Jude receives his first kiss and they walk arms round waist together. Already considering this is Victorian, out of the five books I've read of Hardy this is some of the most descriptive physical contact he's ever given about a non-married couple. Amazing! When Jude drops Arabella home she complains "it will look silly if you just drop me home, come inside". Well inside her whole friggin family and some members of the community that see them walking in together; hinting at their courtship. There was even a point where her father says "courting" and Jude thinks that its a bit too early for that shit but just goes with it. Courtship in Victorian terms could mean an ultimate turn to marriage, which considering he wants to do more in life isn't on his list straight away.
Immediately Arabella exclaims to her friends "I want him, I want him to have me" blah blah blah. Still A LOT for a Victorian writer Hardy! One of her more promiscuous friends I suppose basically suggests she do more than kiss him and entangle him into marrying her if he is a true man and marries someone instead of ditches them at those early signs. They do because she's a bit of a harlot, he is fooled and they're married. I may take this time to point out, you're told as a reader about the marriage in one sentence. Simple and sweet Hardy.
But a couple of months in, he's spent pretty much anything he has earnt because he bought a n inn which he thought Arabella could run a little but she can't do shit. They buy and feed a what they can a pig to slaughter and sell but that is a horrific scene I never want to read again. I read it whilst at work and was asked whats wrong. Truly, Arabella tries to make him bleed out a pig and he has sympathy and doesn't do it the inhumane way. She's an absolute bitch. She explains to him that she is not knocked up, he's obviously shocked and she decided to randomly go back to her parents and move to Australia of all places.
As a side note, I believe their marriage will come back to haunt Jude. It nearly always does. As you see, its Victorian times and they don't actually divorce, they just pretend like the horrific marriage isn't real.
----This is were I decided to sleep instead and read more today...----
He meets his cousin Sue Bridehead after a while and she declares that she's moving away. How great is this though, the reason she's having to move is because she bought some naked statues to hide in her room, demonstrating her "new woman" attitude. But her religious house keeper found out that they weren't saints, she destroys them. Jude clearly doesn't want her to leave, at this point Hardy even writes of how he is excessively attracted to her physically. SO he hunts down his old teacher/friend who is headmaster at the local school and asks if she could get a teaching position. As it turns out Sue has had experience in teaching. Coincidence? I think not. Today I read that the headmaster fellow is twenty years her senior and yet they seem to be getting close. Life is pretty shit for Jude...
I will post this and read on because it is a great book and its only the first volume. There have been so many moments where I've stopped reading simply to reflect on the horrid circumstances Hardy drags his characters. He's St. Devil. My love for Hardy continues. The second cliffhanger from the last post will never be revealed. Ha!
Good night x
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