#jude the obscure

[sophsicle]

"but nobody did come, because nobody does" because nobody does you think "this is the moment. this is the moment when the hero appears and I am saved" you think "this is the moment when the music swells" someone will pull me out of the fire. out of the crashing waves. out from under the knife.

and you wait. and you wait. but life has no narrative. it holds no morals. it needs no heroes. “and under the crushing recognition of his gigantic error, Jude continued to wish himself out of the world.”

#jude the obscure #not a day goes by that i don't think about this quote #i tell you #thomas hardy #literature

[derangedrhythms]

The trees overhead deepened the gloom of the hour, and they dripped sadly upon him, impressing him with forebodings - illogical forebodings; for though he knew that he loved her he also knew that he could not be more to her than he was.

Thomas Hardy, from 'Jude the Obscure'

#thomas hardy #jude the obscure #prose #gloom #l #o

[thewomanwithmissingfingers]

Knowing not a human being here, Jude began to be impressed with the isolation of his own personality, as with a self-spectre, the sensation being that of one who walked but could not make himself seen or heard. He drew his breath pensively, and, seeming thus almost his own ghost, gave his thoughts to the other ghostly presences with which the nooks were haunted.

Jude the Obscure, Thomas Hardy, 1895

#jude the obscure #thomas hardy #lit #19th century

[a-book-is-a-garden]

“Knowing not a human being here, Jude began to be impressed with the isolation of his own personality, as with a self-spectre, the sensation being that of one who walked, but could not make himself seen or heard. He drew his breath pensively, and, seeming thus almost his own ghost, gave his thoughts to the other ghostly presences with which the nooks were haunted.”

- Thomas Hardy, “Jude the Obscure”

#Jude the Obscure #Thomas Hardy #Quote #Novel #Literature #Naturalism #Victorian Era #English #19th Century

[shizukoakatsuki-blog]

Maybe reading Jude the Obscure while being already sad wasn't a great idea

#jude the obscure #thomas hardy #classic lit

[angelic37]

Christopher Eccleston spam → part 36/∞

Jude. 1996

#christopher eccleston #cecclestonedit #jude #jude the obscure #jude 1996 #jude fawley #christopher eccleston spam #by angelic37

[oldshrewsburyian]

Please do you have any recs for books set in Oxford beyond the classics (e.g. Brideshead Revisited, Gaudy Night, Morse)?

Oh I do! The difficulty is that there are so many 'classics.' Among these I would count, for instance, Max Beerbohm's Zuleika Dobson, but I am mentioning it here anyway because it is utterly delightful. Its subtitle, “An Oxford Love Story,” indicates that it is a story about a romance with Oxford, as well as a love story set within it.

Testament of Youth, Vera Brittain, describes the memoirist's time at Oxford in the early C20, including her encounters with Sayers and her experiences of reading Rupert Brooke's sonnets.

Landscape With Dead Dons, Robert Robinson, is an absurdist mystery with a geographically-specific chase scene so funny that I had to put down the book and make undignified noises about it.

The Gervase Fen series, Edmund Crispin, also delights in a comedic (and deeply affectionate) skewering of specifically Oxonian eccentricities. I think my favorite of his is Swan Song, which features pedantry about Wagner, though the one that most often makes it onto "best of" whodunit lists is The Moving Toyshop.

The Oxford Murders, Guillermo Martínez. I feel that I should have enjoyed this book more than I did, but it is skillfully crafted (and Martínez himself did a postdoc at Oxford.)

Engleby, Sebastian Faulks, is set at a deliberately unspecified university... either Oxford or the other place. The fact that the protagonist studies natural sciences might imply Cambridge. I confess I don’t remember enough details of the setting to state my own view.

Jude the Obscure, Thomas Hardy. I recommend this with the caveat that it wrecked me, but it’s supposed to. It has searing and indelible prose, and it writes about the life of the mind with exquisite yearning. Like Gaudy Night, too, it asks the central question of what happens when the life of the mind encounters the life of the heart, and what can happen if those in "a castle manned by scholarship and religion” pretend they can ignore the messiness of human realities.

To Say Nothing of the Dog, Connie Willis. This book is an absolute delight, and it defies description. There is punting. There are Wimsey references. There are Victorian monstrosities. There is time travel.

#book recommendations #oxford #adultbooklr #my detection obsession #zuleika dobson #jude the obscure #to say nothing of the dog #edmund crispin #landscape with dead dons #testament of youth #sebastian faulks #guillermo martinez

[whereintheworldiskamalakhan]

"Take My China" by Gypsy Rebel Rabble

Listen to the whole album in better quality on band camp

Lyrics:

We got wed way too soon Tied the knot without a clue Well you'll never get to heaven with your eyes sewn shut you'll never get to heaven with your eyes sewn shut but right now, I'm in the heat of dismay and we got let go on the move times were tight but we were born to brood (?) Well you'll never get to heaven with your eyes sewn shut you'll never get to heaven with your eyes sewn shut but right now, I'm getting carried away and Captain, put it to me straight how many days without alcohol are you willing to navigate and we stepped down this neck of the woods at 22 you are damaged goods like hell you'll never get to heaven with your eyes sewn shut you'll never get to heaven with your eyes sewn shut but right now it's raining in May and Captain, put it to me straight how many days without alcohol are you willing to navigate I wish he'd never given you away (never given me away) I wish he'd never given you away (never given me away) if I'm honest, I choose freedom and if I'm honest, I choose life if I'm honest, I choose loneliness and I'm honest, it's in my mind if I'm honest, take my china if I'm honest, take my heart if I'm honest, indeed the ocean (?) I'm honest, hold on tight I wish he'd never given you away (never given me away) I wish he'd never given you away (never given me away) I fucking wish he'd never given you away, oh no no I wish he'd never given you away

Listen to the rest of their stuff (all albums on band camp, one album on spotify), they're good:

#no one I know in real life has read the book lol #Jude the obscure #Youtube #I typed these lyrics by hand bc they're not on google so I did my best #there are a few spots where I can't quite tell what the words are lol #gypsy rebel rabble #music

[scleroticstatue]

Okay, I'm just going to say it. We need to be honest with kids and young adults in high school and college who have ideas for what they want to do with their lives. We need to have school counselors that tell students they won't do well in college, we need to have parents that tell their kids that they actually can't do what they want, we need academic advisors that tell college students they're being stupid about their future. I don't even mean stuff like "they're just not as big a market for gender studies grads as you're hoping," I mean stuff like "hey, you have zero regard for authority, going into a field that requires you to build a relationship of respect and mentorship with a college professor in order to get a PhD is a dumb thing for you to try and attempt. You will spend the whole time making enemies and then getting failed for personal reasons" and "yeah, I know "reasonable accomodation" is a thing, but you are in a wheelchair and being a field underwater achaeologist just isn't going to be a viable career," and "you almost failed algebra three different times, you cannot be a math major." I know it's mean, telling someone now that it's a waste of time for them to do whatever they've got their heart set on, but it's kinder to let people know now that their life path is going to lead them to disappointment and they need to reassess where they're at. The 16-25 age group are idealists and think they can change the world, but they might need to change the world just to be accepted into a field and most kids aren't ready or devoted enough to any particular discipline to do that, and adult guides in the young adult's life should be there to bring them back to reality.

#if I'd known three years ago i was agreeing with #jude the obscure #kind not nice #anti college #be mean

[cobwebs-in-sues-closet]

reading these sentences about oxford while oxford looked like this felt like fate :)

#jude the obscure is becoming my comfort novel and i'm worried that makes me a walking red flag #thomas hardy #jude the obscure #oxford university #dark academia #light academia #studyblr #english literature #english lit student #lady margaret hall

[beljar]

But no one came. Because no one ever does.

Thomas Hardy, from Jude the Obscure, 1895

#thomas hardy #jude the obscure #dark naturalism #english literature #literary text #books and libraries #world literature #quotes #dark acadamia aesthetic #classic literature

[derangedrhythms]

– you spirit, you disembodied creature, you dear, sweet, tantalizing phantom –

Thomas Hardy, from 'Jude the Obscure'

#thomas hardy #jude the obscure #prose #ghost

[thewomanwithmissingfingers]

It was curious, he thought. What was he reserved for? He supposed he was not a sufficiently dignified person for suicide. Peaceful death abhorred him as a subject, and would not take him. What could he do of a lower kind than self-extermination; what was there less noble, more in keeping with his present degraded position? He could get drunk. Of course that was it; he had forgotten. Drinking was the regular, stereotyped resource of the despairing worthless.

Jude the Obscure, Thomas Hardy, 1895

#jude the obscure #thomas hardy #lit #19th century

[a-book-is-a-garden]

“He fell asleep for a short while, and when he awoke it was as if he had awakened in hell. It was hell — ‘the hell of conscious failure,’ both in ambition and in love. He thought of that previous abyss into which he had fallen before leaving this part of the country; the deepest deep he had supposed it then; but it was not so deep as this. That had been the breaking in of the outer bulwarks of hope: this was of his second line.”

- Thomas Hardy, “Jude the Obscure”

#Jude the Obscure #Thomas Hardy #Quote #Novel #Literature #Naturalism #Victorian Era #English #19th Century

[donlyonewhogetsmep]

Thomas Hardy, from 'Jude the Obscure'

#thomas hardy #jude the obscure #events did not rhyme

[sparklygraves]

reading Brideshead Revisited got me thinking about my own gay college days so I dug up an old diary from that time & am writing poems based on some of the entries. I was in my second year & angsting hardcore over my first love. also writing essays for my english lit classes :P

p.s. if you happen to have done any projects involving your old journals, I’d be curious to learn about them!✨

#ps i remember pretty much nada about jude the obscure so sorry if i got some details wrong there #jude the obscure #english major #poem #creative writing #diary #diary poem #old diary #brideshead revisited #queer lit #queer poet #little women #beth march