What Thomas Hardy book should I read first?
I would vote for jumping off the deep end and reading ’Jude the Obscure’ first. It is probably Hardy’s most shockingly pessimistic novel, and it’s shorter than most of the others. It is beautifully written, and the main characters–Jude Fawley and Sue Bridehead–are beautifully delineated. Jude is a lower-class young man who yearns to be a scholar. He teaches himself Latin and Greek and longs to go to university. His dreams are dashed when he is pressured to marry a local girl, Arabella Donn, who eventually deserts him. He then falls in love with his cousin, Sue, who marries Jude’s former schoolmaster, Mr. Phillotson, and who is also basically repulsed by sex. Sue eventually leaves Phillotson to be with Jude, and from there the love between the two main characters results in more and more calamities for them both. I won’t say much more, as I don’t want to spoil the ending for you, but it’s one of the saddest books I’ve ever read. Hardy is a wonderful writer, a master of English prose,
I’ve been thinking about this a bit and I began by thinking I would be inclined to suggest “Tess of the d’Urbervilles”. It’s got something of every aspect of hardy about it, and is a little easier going than “Jude the Obscure” (which I’d probably say was the best of his work, if pushed, but perhaps a little much as first novel — it’s very dark and has the potential to be more than a little depressing). An alternative, and probably a rather controversial option, would be “Under the Greenwood Tree”. There are two reasons I’d suggest this. One is that it is one of Hardy’s earliest works and it’s somehow nice to see where an author was coming from before we see where they arrive: this is where Hardy introduced Wessex and began writing about the themes that would recur in his later work — it has the countryside setting that we come to expect, and the influence of class of loves and lives. The second is that it’s probably the most positive and optimistic of Hardy’s novels: it’s a lighter,
I read them probably 25 to 30 years ago. Tess is the story of young, illfated love in a time and a place where people were not so forgiving about the mistakes we humans make. That’s all I will say. It was excellent. I don’t want to spoil it by giving details. It is the book that spurred me on to read other Hardy novels, the next one being The Mayor of Castorbridge. This was also excellent, about a man who has become a well respected member of society, but who has his dirty little secrets from the past. Again, I will say no more! I have read several others of his, but those 2 are the ones that stand out in my mind the most. Good luck!
