Columbus: Friday Night Book Clubs discusses "Jude the Obscure"

Event date: 
09/30/2016 - 6:30pm

Join the Friday Night Book Club on Friday, September 30th at 6:30pm as they discuss "Jude the Obscure" by Thomas Hardy.

The Friday Night Book Club reads fiction, alternating between a classic work and a contemporary one; the books are selected by the group, which welcomes new members. The group normally meets on the last Friday of each month. 

Jude the Obscure synopsis: Powerful and controversial from its 1895 publication to the present, Jude the Obscure scandalized Victorian critics, who condemned it as decadent, indecent, and degenerate. Between its frank portrayals of sexuality and its indictments of marriage, religion, and England's class system, the novel offended a broad swath of readers. Its heated reception led the embittered author to renounce fiction, turning his considerable talents ever afterward to writing poetry.Hardy's last novel depicts a changing world, where a poor stonemason can aspire to a university education and a higher place in society but where in reality such dreams remain unattainable. Thwarted at every turn, Jude Hawley abandons his hopes, is trapped into an unwise marriage, and pursues a doomed relationship with his free-spirited cousin, Sue Bridehead. The lovers find themselves equally incapable of living within the conventions of their era and of transcending its legal and moral strictures. Hailed by modern critics as a pioneering work of feminism and socialist thought, Hardy's tragic parable continues to resonate with readers.

Thomas Hardy was born in 1840 in Higher Bockhampton (Upper Bockhampton in his day), a hamlet in the parish of Stinsford to the east of Dorchester in Dorset, England, where his father Thomas (1811-1892) worked as a stonemason and local builder.

Friday Night Book Club reads fiction, alternating between a classic work and a contemporary one; the books are selected by the group, which welcomes new members.   The group normally meets on the last Friday of each month. 

Event address: 
450 Columbus Ave
New York, NY 10024
Jude the Obscure By Thomas Hardy Cover Image
$7.00
Not Available
ISBN: 9780486452432
Published: Dover Publications - December 1st, 2006