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    Tess of the d'Urbervilles
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    Tess of the d'Urbervilles
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    Tess of the d'Urbervilles
    Ebook545 pages8 hours

    Tess of the d'Urbervilles

    By Thomas Hardy

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    About this ebook

    Tess of the d'Urbervilles or just Tess, is a novel by Thomas Hardy. Though now considered an important work of English literature, the book received mixed reviews when it first appeared, in part because it challenged the sexual mores of Hardy's day. Hardy's writing often illustrates the "ache of modernism", and this theme is notable in Tess, which, as one critic noted, portrays "the energy of traditional ways and the strength of the forces that are destroying them". Hardy describes modern farm machinery with infernal imagery; also, at the dairy, he notes that the milk sent to the city must be watered down because the townspeople cannot stomach whole milk. Angel's middle-class fastidiousness makes him reject Tess, a woman whom Hardy often portrays as a sort of Wessex Eve, in harmony with the natural world. When he parts from her and goes to Brazil, the handsome young man gets so ill that he is reduced to a "mere yellow skeleton". All these instances are typically interpreted as indications of the negative consequences of man's separation from nature, both in the creation of destructive machinery and in the inability to rejoice in pure nature.

    Another important theme of the novel is the sexual double standard to which Tess falls victim; despite being, in Hardy's view, a truly good woman, she is despised by society after losing her virginity before marriage. Hardy plays the role of Tess's only true friend and advocate, pointedly subtitling the book "a pure woman faithfully presented" and prefacing it with Shakespeare's words from The Two Gentlemen of Verona: "Poor wounded name! My bosom as a bed/ Shall lodge thee." However, although Hardy clearly means to criticise Victorian notions of female purity, the double standard also makes the heroine's tragedy possible, and thus serves as a mechanism of Tess's broader fate. Hardy variously hints that Tess must suffer either to atone for the misdeeds of her ancestors, or to provide temporary amusement for the gods, or because she possesses some small but lethal character flaw inherited from the ancient clan.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBookRix
    Release dateJun 9, 2019
    ISBN9783736802797
    Author

    Thomas Hardy

    Thomas Hardy was born in Dorset in 1840, the eldest of four children. At the age of sixteen he became an apprentice architect. With remarkable self discipline he developed his classical education by studying between the hours of four and eight in the morning. With encouragement from Horace Moule of Queens' College Cambridge, he began to write fiction. His first published novel was Desperate Remedies in 1871. Thus began a series of increasingly dark novels all set within the rural landscape of his native Dorset, called Wessex in the novels. Such was the success of his early novels, including A Pair of Blue Eyes (1873) and Far From the Madding Crowd (1874), that he gave up his work as an architect to concentrate on his writing. However he had difficulty in getting Tess of the D'Urbervilles (1889) published and was forced to make changes in order for it to be judged suitable for family readers. This coupled with the stormy reaction to the negative tone of Jude the Obscure (1894) prompted Hardy to abandon novel writing altogether. He concentrated mainly on poetry in his latter years. He died in January 1928 and was buried in Westminster Abbey; but his heart, in a separate casket, was buried in Stinsford, Dorset.

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    Reviews for Tess of the d'Urbervilles

    4/5

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    • 4/5
      Tess is a lovely girl; beautiful, sweet, sensitive and soft. I loved Tess when I first encountered her as a teenager, when I studied Thomas Hardy's novel for my English A'level. Hardy brings Tess and her world to life with such rich, sumptuous detail. I found reading it a mesmerising experience. I wasn't sure who I hated most, of the men in love with Tess, Angel or Alec. They both were unable to appreciate and love her for what she was. They seemed to be intent on destroying her in some way. Tess rose above being a helpless victim, in quite a horrible way, but I was always on her side and had great understanding and sympathy for her.
    • 4/5
      This is an enjoyable read, and I found ‘The Maiden’, the first of six ‘phases’, to be five star, really getting it off to a great start. I’ll describe the main elements of its plot (mini spoiler alert), but not too much beyond that. We’re first introduced to Tess Durbeyfield’s father, who is somewhat lazy and a drinker; when he finds out he has a connection to an ancient family in the region, he comes to have some unrealistic, high falutin’ hopes about falling into fortune. One night when he can’t drive his beehives to the market for the following morning’s sales, Tess goes in his place. Unfortunately, she falls asleep at the reins, which Hardy describes cosmically: “With no longer a companion to distract her, Tess fell more deeply into reverie than ever, her back leaning against the hives. The mute procession past her shoulders of trees and hedges became attached to fantastic scenes outside reality and the occasional heave of the wind became the sigh of some immense sad soul, conterminous with the universe in space, and with history in time.”Shortly afterward, in a shocking sequence, Tess gets into a violent accident with a wagon coming the other direction, which kills the family horse. The resulting financial hardship encourages her parents all the more to send her off to the distant d’Urberville family, to work on their property and form a connection with them, but there she becomes the prey of the dastardly Alec d’Urberville. Hardy hints at Alec’s intentions in ways that make the reader cringe, and in an absolutely brilliant sequence late at night after a dance, he rapes Tess. In the morality of the time, this stains Tess; she feels guilty over it for the rest of the novel and unworthy of a future husband, while Alec happily goes on with his life. Grrr.Hardy was a transitional writer in the late 19th century, including old school melodrama in his writing, but also modernist psychology, and challenges to religion and the morality of the day which deeply offended Victorians. As an extension of that, his (ostensible) protagonist Angel Clare, the more enlightened gentleman who finds Tess and falls for her, is a transitional thinker. On the one hand, Angel is aware of evolution and flouts religion and conventionality, but on the other hand, he has old-fashioned about a woman’s virtue. Between the outright evil of Alec, who Tess has fled, and Alec’s hypocrisy, it’s hard to like either character, or to know who is worse, but I think that’s part of Hardy’s point. The unfairness of life for women will almost certainly make you grit your teeth, and Hardy may go on a teeny bit too long in the center sections of the book, but there is a lot to like here.Quotes:On art:“She thought, without exactly wording the thought, how strange and godlike was a composer’s power, who from the grave could lead through sequences of emotion, which he alone had felt at first, a girl like her who had never heard of his name, and never would have a clue to his personality.”On beauty:“How very lovable her face was to him. Yet there was nothing ethereal about it; all was real vitality, real warmth, real incarnation. And it was in her mouth that this culminated. Eyes almost as deep and speaking he had seen before, and cheeks perhaps as fair; brows as arched, a chin and throat almost as shapely; her mouth he had seen nothing to equal on the face of the earth. To a young man with the least fire in him that little upward lift in the middle of her red top lip was distracting, infatuating, maddening. He had never before seen a woman’s lips and teeth which forced upon his mind with such persistent iteration the old Elizabeth simile of roses filled with snow. Perfect, he, as a lover, might have called them off-hand. But no – they were not perfect. And it was the touch of the imperfect upon the would-be perfect that gave the sweetness, because it was that which gave the humanity.”On death, I thought this was an interesting perspective, and yes, our ‘deathday’ is out there somewhere for all of us:“She philosophically noted dates as they came past in the revolution of the year; the disastrous night of her undoing at Tantridge with its dark background of The Chase; also the dates of the baby’s birth and death; also her own birthday; and every other day individualized by incidents in which she had taken some share. She suddenly thought one afternoon, when looking in the glass at her fairness, that there was yet another date, of greater importance to her than those; that of her own death, when all these charms would have disappeared; a day which lay sly and unseen and among all the other days of the year, giving no sign or sound when she annually passed over it; but not the less surely there. When was it? Why did she not feel the chill of each yearly encounter with such a cold relation? She had Jeremy Taylor’s thought that some time in the future those who had known her would say, ‘It is the- th, the day that poor Tess Durbeyfield died’; and there would be nothing singular to their minds in the statement. Of that day, doomed to her terminus in time through all the ages, she did not know the place in month, week, season, or year.”On knowledge:“’Because what’s the use of learning that I am one of a long row only – finding out that there is set down in some old book somebody just like me, and to know that I shall only act her part; making me sad, that’s all. The best is not to remember that your nature and past doings have been just like thousands’ and thousands’, and that your coming life and doings’ll be like thousands’ and thousands’.’‘What, really, then, you don’t want to learn anything?’‘I shouldn’t mind learning why – why the sun do shine on the just and the unjust alike,’ she answered, with a slight quaver in her voice. ‘But that’s what the books will not tell me.’”On religion, harkening back to worship of the sun:“The sun, on account of the mist, had a curious sentient, personal look, demanding the masculine pronoun for its adequate expression. His present aspect, coupled with the lack of all human forms in the scene, explained the old-time heliolatries in a moment. One could feel that a saner religion had never prevailed under the sky. The luminary was a golden-haired, beaming, mild-eyed, God-like creature, gazing down in the vigour and intentness of youth upon an earth that was brimming with interest for him.”And this one, questioning God in a world of cruelty:“The calmness which had possessed Tess since the christening remained with her in the infant’s loss. In the daylight, indeed, she felt her terrors about his soul to have been somewhat exaggerated; whether well founded or not she had no uneasiness now, reasoning that if Providence would not ratify such an act of approximation she, for one, did not value the kind of heaven lost by the irregularity – either for herself or for her child.”And:“Once upon a time Angel had been so unlucky as to say to his father, in a moment of irritation, that it might have resulted far better for mankind if Greece had been the source of the religion of modern civilization, and not Palestine; and his father’s grief was of that blank description which could not realize that there might lurk a thousandth part of a truth, much less a half truth or a whole truth, in such a proposition.”Lastly this one, an example of Hardy taking a simple scene on a dairy farm and both putting it in perspective in the bigger picture, but also pointing out it’s no less important than scenes of royalty; this quote really has it all, compared to how simply it may have been put:“Long thatched sheds stretched round the enclosure, their slopes encrusted with vivid green moss, and their eaves supported by wooden posts rubbed to a glossy smoothness by the flanks of infinite cows and calves of bygone years, now passed to an oblivion almost inconceivable in its profundity. Between the posts were ranged the milchers, each exhibiting herself at the present moment to a whimsical eye in the rear as a circle on two stalks, down the centre of which a switched moved pendulum-wise; while the sun, lowering itself behind this patient row, threw their shadows accurately inwards upon the wall. Thus it threw shadows of these obscure and homely figures every evening with as much care over each contour as if it had been the profile of a Court beauty on a palace wall; copied them as diligently as it had copied Olympian shades on marble facades long ago, or the outline of Alexander, Caesar, and the Pharaohs.”
    • 3/5
      2.5 starsTess is a young unmarried woman in rural England in the late 19th century. Through a series of events, she ends up with two men falling for her. I don't really want to give anything away, so this is pretty vague.I “missed” (skimmed) the first quarter of it, as it couldn't hold my attention. I was able to figure out most of what happened later, but even later, I wasn't all that interested in what was happening. Some of it was ok, but mostly, I just wasn't interested. I didn't really care about Tess or any of the characters, though I did feel badly for her a couple of times. I was surprised at the end. The extra ½ star was for the times that I was a bit interested in what was going on.
    • 4/5
      I'm loathe to give my first read of 2013 a 5/5 but this one definitely comes close! Proper review to follow but for now I must just say that I loved it! 4½/5, maybe! :)
    • 3/5
      Another TV tip from Faulks on Fiction, about as successful a selection for me as reading The End of the Affair. Tess is well crafted, but unevenly developed, and although I liked Hardy's style to begin with, there was far too much introspection and pastoral eulogising between the main events of the story. Novels filled with thinking, especially Victorian novels, bore me silly.Tess is a victim throughout most of the story, until Hardy has an attack of the potboilers in the final chapters, and her choice in men (or the men who choose her) is woeful, from priggish Angel (what a name!) to Hardy's omniscient narrator, who obviously fancies her. She is a Victorian pin-up, with 'peony' lips (or cheeks in the Graphic) and a voloptuous figure. And although I thought that Tess' confrontation with her new husband was tense and incredibly emotional, he is hardly worth the bother. Likewise, Alec D'Urberville is a pantomime villain with no depth or shade whatsoever.Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the book is the contrast between the 1891 text reprinted as the Penguin Classics edition, and the very Victorian censorship of the same story for Graphic magazine in Hardy's time (the footnotes mark where passages were changed, such as the description of Tess' looks). The prudishness is almost laughable! (The central conflict of Tess was 'cleaned up' as a clandestine marriage between Tess and Alec.)
    • 4/5
      So I think all be all intellectual-like and read a classic of literature rather than my usual fare. And what do I get in return? Rape, misogyny, poverty, domestic abuse and capital punishment. I guess it's no surprise that men were also bastards back in 1891. But I was somewhat taken aback to read all that stuff so starkly. (The exception to the starkness being the rape scene - the Victorian era book was so euphemistic about it that I didn't actually figure out what Alex had done to Tess until several chapters on.)Tess is meant to be the ideal woman according to Hardy's narrator, but her two endearing attributes are that she is good looking, and agrees with everything her lover, Angel, says. The villain, Alex, like many others, spends most of his time thinking he has been wronged. The male hero, Angel is a self-important wimp. Naturally, despite Tess's guiltless life the novel moves inexorably towards her punishment. Man (Angel and Alex) has interfered with nature so Tess must be punished.A good book with odd values, and too much discussion of old English countryside for my antipodean sense to appreciate.
    • 5/5
      What can I say-I love Hardy. Why do I love an author whose books seem to move from one heartbreak to another? He is definitely not one you read for a light pick-me-up, that is for certain. But his writing is so nuanced that it feels as if I am floating down a quiescent rural stream; I know turbulent water lies ahead-I can feel the increasing pull beneath me-yet there seems to be no urgency to try to pull away in opposition. Going there just seems to be the natural flow of life. So why do I love this man whose plots I willingly follow into the very depths of despondency? Because the prose...oh, the prose!Thomas Hardy is a master of every literary element. For him, setting, especially, takes on such presence that it becomes an amalgamation of every place you have ever been. All of your senses become engaged. You hear the church bells peal across the meadow. The flank of the cow against Tess' cheek feels warm and fluid beneath your own. As she toils in the field you feel the grit of harvested grain in the sweaty crease of your neck and taste its dryness in your mouth. You feel refreshed by the wind and gladdened by the birds in flight.When it comes to character, Hardy is the consummate teacher. We don't just know that Tess' mother is hard at work on wash day. Her weariness is palpable. We aren't told that Tess is a good daughter. She pitches in just where she is needed, time and time again. Each character, major and minor, is presented so completely through their speech and actions that the narrator need fill in very little. For me they each even acquire a distinctive voice in my head.So if you have shied away from Hardy for lack of interest in his wrenching plots, I urge you to give one of his novels a try and experience the power of his incomparable prose.
    • 4/5
      In terms of sheer style, this is one of the best books I've ever read. I'm not a fan by and large of Victorian fiction, but Hardy, while having all the hallmarks, does it all so skillfully it's akin to an edifice like Chartes Cathedral--the epitome of its kind. The omniscient point of view is masterful and flowing, nothing feels like filler--even the description. The description that seems mere bagatelle in other narratives contributes greatly to tone, theme, and atmosphere--besides which the descriptions so often strike me as out and out beautiful. Some scenes are so striking, so cinematic. I'm not about to forget Alec feeding Tess strawberries, or Tess in the tombs of her ancestors or at Stonehenge. Nor is it all doom and gloom, there are glints of humor, especially to be found in the depiction of Tess' family and her parents' pretensions. Although if you're one of the few who doesn't know this story is a tragedy, it's so early and often foreshadowed you'll have no problem mistaking this for a happily ever after romance. The story falls into a subgenre of tragedy I usually despise--the "fallen woman" trope seen in such novels as Flaubert's Madame Bovary and Tolstoy's Anna Karenina. It's been decades since I've read those novels, so perhaps my memory isn't accurate, but my impression of both is that their authors didn't have much sympathy for their fairly flighty heroines. What struck me about Hardy is the compassion, even admiration, which he obviously feels for his character. It's society he seemed to condemn, and that's never more apparent than his depiction of the hypocrisy of the "misnamed" Angel Clare, the man Tess loves. I didn't think it was possible he could eclipse Alec Stokes-D'Uberville, Tess' rapist, in my contempt and hatred for him, but I hated Angel with the heat of a thousand suns, in itself a literary achievement.So, why don't I give this five stars? Why isn't it on my favorites shelf? I think it's because of Tess. I can't quite put my finger on why, but she never comes alive for me. Alec and Angel, the two men who between them destroy her feel like real people to me, Tess doesn't. Hardy subtitled his novel "A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented" and maybe that's it--he didn't depict a woman of flesh and blood, but a feminine ideal and a victim. It's not quite as simple of that. Tess has pride and doesn't always act wisely or well--she's not quite a complete innocent and she's sorely tried. But something in her depiction distances me from her.
    • 3/5
       This was the first time for reading a Hardy novel, and it wasn't quite so bad as what I thought it would be. Hardy's pastoral descriptions of country life in the English countryside were so acute. The courtship between Tess and Angel was beautifully portrayed, before Tess's shattering confession, and the lurking Alec D'Urberville in the background was a very strange rival.. There were patches where Hardy would ramble on about something completely allien to me and would then return to the story, which is why I have rated it lower. But when it got back on track, it was great. I did not agree with the ending, though.
    • 5/5
      This is one of my favourite books. It is so beautifully written that even through the frustrations and hardships the heroine faces, you are drawn on by the power of the language and the force of the story. Hardy was trying to make an important point in the writing of this story, and while such a tale seems unimaginable in today's world, it nevertheless resonates, particularly with women. Shocking in it's day, Hardy's efforts were felt. Tess is a provocative look at the plight of the 19th century woman, unnaturally naive to a world run by world-wise men. I'm not sure I've ever recovered from this book, and it has been a powerful influence in my own work.
    • 5/5
      When I finished this book at 10:10 P.M. on Dec 8, 1964, I said: "i am overwhelmed--powerful, stark, overpowering. I have not been so impressed and awed by a novel in years. Most other novels I have read pale into triviality in comparison. In wroking backwards in my list of books read certainly nothing since Roger Martin du Gard's novel can compare, and it is discursive and tedious in comparison. The same can be said of From Here to Eternity, which I read in April of 1961.. It is true the plot is strained at times, unlikely. But the strength of the prose makes up for that. The final paragraph is typical of the harsh Hardy prose: 'Justice was done and the President of the Immortals, in Aesclylean phrase, had ended his sport with Tess. And the D'Urberville knights and dames slept on in their tombs unknowing. The two speechless gazers bent themselves down to the earth, as for prayer, and remained thus for a long time, absolutely motionless: the flag continued to wave silently. As soon as they had strength they arose, joined hands again, and went on.' What a story! What a style! I am impressed.
    • 5/5
      Rarely have I ever had such a visceral reaction to a book. I have read a few other Hardy novels and so at this point I expect tragedy. But this one still blew me away. It broke my heart in so many ways, but Hardy’s writing made the whole experience oddly beautiful, despite the inevitable disaster that you know if coming. The brilliance of his writing is just breathtaking. The scenes he creates are incredibly beautiful. Alec is such a brilliant villain because of the very fact that he is so relatable to different men. As Hardy himself says, Tess’ own male ancestors probably did the same thing to peasant girls. It's so horrifying and common at the same time and Alec has no real understanding that what he's doing is wrong. He knows what he wants he decides he's going to take it. There's no consideration for anything else.Tess’ family is poor, but they discover they are descendants of a wealthy local family. She is sent to befriend the family and see if they can improve her own family’s situation. She meets Alec D'Urbervilles and soon her life is changed forever. I can’t say too much more without spoilers, except that it’s a powerful book, but not a cheery one. **SPOILERS**I’ve never hated a character as much as I hated Alec. He is a rapist, a manipulator, and worst of all, he honestly doesn’t think he’s done much wrong in the first half of the novel. At one point Alec says something about how Tess shouldn’t have worn a certain dress and bonnet because it made her too pretty. The “you were asking for it” mentality was present even back then when dress was far more modest. It was so frustrating and infuriating. He manipulated every situation, forcing her to be alone with him, to rely on him for help, etc. His condescending nicknames made my skin crawl. When he calls her “Tessie” or “my little pretty” it made me nauseous because she was shrinking away from him and begging him quietly to stop touching her. She said again and again that she did not love him and she was scared of him. She never feels comfortable with him. From their very first interaction, as he makes her eat strawberries from his hand, she is uncomfortable and wants to go home immediately. There was no infatuation only a feeling in her gut that he was not someone to be trusted.On top of that, Angel’s absurd double standard for his actions and her actions was infuriating. The worst part is that both men, the “good” one and the “bad” one share the same mentality about the situation. Both blame Tess but never themselves. The same attitude is around today, even though women have many more options, they are often shamed when they are sexually assaulted. The book is split into different phases and the second one begins after the infamous event. Tess is so broken; she's not even scared of him anymore because he's already done the worst to her that he could possibly do. She's resigned to her fate and full of sorrow. I kept thinking about how many other women over hundreds of years have gone through the same thing and are just completely broken afterwards and no one understands why. The man took something from her that she did not want to give and society treats it as if he didn't really do anything wrong. They justify it and say things like, maybe she gave off the wrong signals or put herself in a bad situation. It's just horrible.**SPOILERS OVER**BOTTOM LINE: This is not a cheerful book. Every time Tess’ situation improves, heartache is just around the corner. But Hardy deals with it in such a raw and personal way that it is relevant even a century later. His writing transcends the subject matter and I’ve learned that I’ll read whatever he’s written. ** My Penguin Clothbound Classic edition discusses the different versions of the novel that were released. The original release presented a much harsher version of Hardy. Apparently he toned it down and made him more appealing in later versions, which is interesting. “‘I shouldn’t mind learning why the sun do shine on the just and the unjust alike,’ she answered with a slight quaver in her voice. ‘But that’s what books will not tell me.’”“The beauty or ugliness of a character lay not only in its achievements, but in its aims and impulses; its true history lay, not among things done, but among things willed.”
    • 4/5
      Tess of the D’Ubervilles is a beautiful, haunting masterpiece.When Tess’s family fall on hard times, Tess is forced to go and see family she has never heard of before – the well off D’Ubervilles. On arriving she is met with Alec D’Uberville, the man who will be her downfall. After losing her child to illness, Tess receives employment as a milkmaid, and falls in love with Angel Clare, but will Tess be able to tell him about the dark past that she has so long kept secret? And if the truth is revealed, will Angel Clare still feel the same way?I absolutely loved this book. I’m actually sad that I haven’t read it before. I read if for classes, but so many of my classmates had read it before, and I envied being able to read it without studying it. It’s such a beautiful book with such an immense plot. I kept having to put it down and come back to it, purely so I could give myself time to process what I’d read. Hardy has that ability to describe something in detail, pages covering the same thing, but it’s never repetitious and it’s never boring.Tess of the D’Ubervilles is famous for being scandalous and shocking when it was first published, and I can see why. Though not really shocking to us now, I can imagine the horror at a story of women with a child out of marriage, and the idea of concealing that child from her suitor. Hardy certainly has a lot to say about social conventions and the way women were treated at that time.I think Tess is a really fascinating character, she’s strong willed, stubborn and utterly loyal. She makes lots of mistakes throughout the story – and more often than not she pays the price for them. Her story is an immensely sad one. She is a survivor, continuing on even when her life seems the most hopeless.No matter what I write about Tess of the D’Ubervilles, this review will be woefully understating how wonderful this novel is (but that’s not going to stop me trying!) The language in the novel is beautiful and poetic, and I loved the descriptions of nature. Tess is closely linked to nature throughout the plot – something I found particularly interesting. She is seen as almost part of nature herself, a pure, earthy country girl.It’s a very bleak and depressing story, but it is definitely worth reading. This was my first outing in the novels of Thomas Hardy – although I am told The Mayor of Casterbridge is by far his best novel, I really enjoyed Tess of the D’Ubervilles and all its wonderful comments on society.
    • 4/5
      It's a well written piece of fiction, but oh, after reading it, one thirsts for a book with a happy ending.
    • 3/5
      It took me forever and a day to get stuck into this one. Tess' discovery of her aristocratic ancestry sparks a chain of misfortune and disaster which leads to her tragic downfall. Knowing the basics of the plot, I wasn't expecting sunshine and happiness from this book, but I was struck repeatedly at just how downright miserable Hardy is. My annoyance at Tess and the other female characters for their weakness and dependence came second only to my anger at the two male protagonists for their piggishness and idiocy. It wasn't until about half way through the story that I got properly hooked, but any book that can make me tut and sigh audibly, as this one did, could be considered a good read.
    • 4/5
      I have read this novel twice in my life. The first time as an impressionable teenage girl, the second as a thirty-something single mother. It was two different books! First read from a romantic, naive point of view, I thought sorrow and heartache was romantic. Reading it a second time from a realist, possibly cynical, point of view, I saw it as sad and universal of all women.In life we, as women, have all been Tess. We have our Angel Claire's, our idealized perfect mate, but he almost always turns out to be Alec, the reality of men. When going into relationships, we see our lover as light and pure, our inspiration, even our very breath. However, when reality sets in, though, he turns out to be every bit a man as an ex. He is self-serving, not altruistic. He disregards our needs and desires to pursue his own wants and lusts. And often we are powerless against him. One particular line comes to mind: Tess's response to one of Alec's advances is "Once a victim, always a victim! That's the law, isn't it?"It's a good book, and a classic view of life in the 19th century, particularly the injustice towards woman and lower classes. I would not reccommend it to under 18 readers, though.
    • 3/5
      That just couldn't end well, could it? Quite a gloomy novel, well written as per usual with Hardy.
    • 2/5
      Least favourite of Hardy's books - hated it the first time I read it and then had to dissect it for college and hated it more. Poor old Tess, you want to reach into the book and shake her. Hardy's writing suffers in comparison to his other works - it just progresses into misery and depression.
    • 4/5
      This is definitive Hardy: Verbose and pastoral, with highly-detailed descriptions of the scenery that make the setting as important a character as the characters themselves.Tess is all innocence, vulnerability, and well-meaning ignorance. Decended from a now-impoverished line of a noble family, she and her family are resigned to a life of hard work. Her life is thrown into upheveal when she becomes the pawn of two rich men: Alex, with bad intentions, and Angel, with good. No matter what their intentions, their meddling sends Tess to her downfall. She overcomes seduction, or rape, depending upon your interpretation of the scene, only to suffer the hypocrisy of the man she loves, who cannot forgive her for having the audacity to be forced upon. Classism clashes with the reality of the poor working woman's life. Injustice is a major theme, and Hardy spends much time on bringing home the point that Tess, though not a bad person, is constantly outcast as a sinner. If this all sounds familiar, think of its American counterpart ``The Scarlet Letter." But while Hester Prynne wears the symbol of her sin on her breast, Tess carries her shame inside of her, only to cause a furor when she confesses under the innocent delusion that Angel will forgive her. With Hester's sin exposed, society can gradually adjust ot the idea of her disturbing presence. Tess's sin confessed disrupts the illusions of her innocence, causing her to be rejected in an impulsive burst of hypocrisy, immaturity, and vengefulness. In fact, we can judge the morality of the characters by the way they treat Tess.The book is rife with symbolism, a dream for English majors bent on interpreation. Those simply reading for fun may be put off by Hardy's wordiness. He often says thirty words when five will do, but this is all part of his distinguishing style. If you're the type to get lost in words, Hardy is an excellent choice of an author.
    • 5/5
      This book is so masterfully executed that I rate it a 5. What I especially like was Hardy's ability to describe everything so elegantly, including the scenery and the emotions. He excels at using just enough brushstroke to convey his ideas, while leaving everything else to the reader to complete. The themes are simple, yet profound. The book is reminiscent of ancient Greek classics in several ways. The characters live tragic lives, some linked to the downfall of their ancestors. There are also natural and spiritual forces at work. Hardy even interjects narrated commentary that immediately reminded me of the remarks we hear from the Greek chorus of the great plays. I suspect such narrative seemed very modern in the late 19th century.Also Modern were some of Hardy's phrases, such as the "vegeto-human pollen" he describes in a village dance scene. To me, the primary struggle Hardy was exposing was the balance between human nature and societal norms. Several times, he interposed comments such as: She was ashamed of herself for her gloom of the night, based on nothing more tangible than a sense of condemnation under an arbitrary law of society which had no foundation in Nature. Given the time in which this book was written, I also believe Hardy was showing the tension that comes with our migration away from agrarian society. The description of the threshing machine and the engineer are examples supporting this.
    • 4/5
      Dear Tom,Why do I keep reading your books? No one, and I mean no one, treats his characters (or her characters) as badly as you do. Well, maybe with the exception of Upton Sinclair, who must have been greatly influenced by you.I read Jude the Obscure several years ago and closed the book with a "Never Again." I was sure I could not bear to read another one of your books after somehow finishing it in spite of that awful letter from the kids "Because we are too menny". I can't figure out what your overall point is except that if one is poor, one is destined to be miserable and that is all there is to it. I guessed what Tess would be about just from its title. I've read lots and lots of other 19th century fiction. Many books have treated the issue of women who lose their chastity, as it would have been put at the time. Many books are pretty grim about their fate. However, you manage to make it worse than the norm because your characters are so very sympathetic. As I read on, I know that Tess' life is going to go from bad to worse, that her ridiculous level of nobility will end up undoing her, that all bad things will happen to her. Sure enough, but what else would we expect of you. What is the point, Tom? Why do you write these novels? What do you want your readers to do? Unlike Dickens, you don't seem to be a social reformer. You don't seem to ever paint the slightest possibility of an alternative to all this woe. On the other hand, your respectful-but-not-convinced portrayal of evangelical Christianity doesn't seem to show religion as a way out, either. Were you just trying to convey existentialist despair? Weren't you a little too early for this?I am really giving you up this time. This is it. You have been too cruel on your characters and your readers and this is the last of your novels I plan to read. How could you, Tom? You are too cruel, and I will never forgive you.Yr servant,Anna
    • 4/5
      ** spoiler alert ** I really enjoyed the book, despite the fact that I found myself getting angrier and angrier at the circumstances that Tess kept finding herself in.From here on out this post could be filled with spoilers, so consider yourself warned. It broke my heart that this poor girl was never able to catch a break and she was taken advantage of by almost every person she meets, including her parents. First her parents send her away so she can claim some supposed, ancient, familial claim that they are sure will better their circumstances. In doing that she is exposed to Alec, who also takes advantage of her innocent nature in the worst way before she is sent back home, in ruin. Back at home, her parents seem to just hold her in contempt because she wasn't able to come home with a 'proper' husband, just an illegitimate baby. It seems that the baby inherited his mother's luck and becomes deadly ill soon after birth. The whole scene where Tess is trying to get her baby a baptism before he dies, only to be refused by her father is heartbreaking. I could feel her desperation when she takes it upon herself to baptize the baby and then asks the priest if it's 'just as good'. When she meets Angel you hope that finally she'll be able to have something good in her life, something she actually deserves, and I really hoped Angel would forgive her for her past, especially since she was taken advantage of. However, Angel disappointed me more than everyone else, including Alec. He was a hypocrite and to treat her the way he did after confessing that he'd committed the very same sin was just beyond cruel.I'll admit that when Alec came back into the picture I really held onto the hope that he was sincere in his approach to Tess. That he really felt remorse and was trying to earn redemption for his act. As the story progressed you could see that it was not the case. He was back to his old self, lying and manipulating Tess to get what he wanted from her and I was mad that she fell for it, again. I wanted her to be older and wiser but in the end she fell right into his plot and it led to her ultimate downfall.So, I liked it, despite being incredibly angry and sad about the outcome.
    • 5/5
      John Durbeyfield is a poor artisan in the village of Marlott finds out that he is a descendant of an old family the d'Urbervilles, which is now extinct. He and his wife are overjoyed. There is a rich family of the same name in the next county. So they sent their daughter, Tess to their supposed relative to better her prospects. There Tess finds out that they have adopted that name. Eric d’Uberville is a womanizer and he seduces Tess. Tess gets pregnant and returns to her own house. The baby is born and dies. Tess moves away from her house and takes up a job as a dairymaid. At the dairy farm, Angel a parson’s son who is learning the farming profession, falls in love with Tess and after a lot of persuasion Tess agrees to marry him but she could not bring herself to tell him of her past. On their honeymoon when she tells him about her past Angel is distraught and leaves her to go to Brazil.Tess moves away to a farm and works as a farm hand. She has a chance meeting with Eric who again tries to seduce her. Tess resists his overtures again and again. In the meantime Tess’ father dies and the family is forced to move out of Marlott. Finding herself cornered Tess implores her husband to come to her and forgive her. As she gets no reply from Angel she takes up with Eric for her and her families sake.In Brazil Angel is having a torrid time and returns to England. His stint in Brazil has cured him of his reserve against his wife and seeks her out but it is already too late. When he meets Tess she is shattered and in her rage kills Eric and runs away with Angel. The husband and wife spend a peaceful week in a deserted house before the law catches with them. Tess is tried and executed.A very well written book of love and loss.
    • 5/5
      Quite the phenomenal book. This was the first book that I have read by Thomas Hardy and it leads me to believe that his other stuff should be well worth my time to pick up. The story in this was phenomenal as well as the pace and way in which he carries the story along as far as the detail used. It was quite brilliant and very refreshing to read. It seems to go well with this time of year(fall), which was a fortunate coincidence.
    • 4/5
      This has always been a favourite of mine. The social machinations that drive Tess are incredible and so solidly Victorian! Hardy is keen in his sense of detail and tells a very beautiful story here.
    • 2/5
      I deeply prefer the morbid foreshadowing and brutal cynicism of 'Jude' to 'Tess'... never has reading a novel felt so exactly like being stifled by passive tragic heroine bosoms. I think my copy of this book actually removes air from any given room. Accordingly, I keep it in a closet.
    • 2/5
      Truthfully, I found the book really hard to take. It's a terribly depressing novel, and the idea that this is what happens to a 'pure' maiden is really disconcerting, especially since Hardy's intentions were for it to be a very realistic depiction of a woman. Seriously -- everything unfortunate that can happen to someone happens to Tess.
    • 4/5
      I felt so sorry for Tess; she simply could not resist so many things, and no one supported her the way they should have. So many bad things happen to her that it's impossible not to feel for her, especially as most of them are not her fault. Her flaw perhaps is in caring too much for others in addition to the cruelties of fate, and this tragically leads to her end. This book is very Victorian in its depiction of women and how they are completely the property of men -- even in their own hearts. Not a modern viewpoint, but fascinating nonetheless.Hardy's writing, as ever, is beautiful and poignant, and to me enjoyable regardless of the tale he tells. Only rated four stars for its sheer depressing nature, but highly worth a read anyway.
    • 4/5
      I was surprised how much I liked this book. Thomas Hardy tells a tragic story of a young Victorian woman who is truly a victim of both her society, and a few people who hold influence over her. I thought the book would be a difficult and depressing read, and yet, even though I knew this to be a tragedy, I found myself immersed in the story and rooting for Tess the entire time. At the beginning of the book, Tess Durbeyfield's father learns he is descended from a great family known as D'Urberville, and sends the 16-year-old Tess off to meet a branch of the D'Urbervilles living nearby. Her parents hope she will make a good match and better their social status and economic prospects. Alec D'Urberville is smitten with Tess, but seduces her and treats her cruelly. Tess returns home having disappointed her parents. Later she makes her way as an agricultural worker, meets Angel Clare, and falls deeply in love. As the son of an evangelical preacher, Angel has his own "issues," which get in the way of their relationship. As a Victorian woman, Tess is largely dependent on others: her parents, the landowners she works for, and men she hopes will bring her happiness and security. She is thwarted at every turn. In many cases, Tess is part of her own undoing through her naivete and submission to male figures. And at the same time she is a strong figure, persistent in the face of adversity and able to take a single, decisive action when she has finally had enough. I will remember Tess for a long time.
    • 4/5
      Plot: The life story of a woman in Victorian England. Good pacing, though some of the gaps are felt. Quite straightforward narration with practically no side plots, easy to follow. Excellent ending - it's rare to find something like this. Characters: From a modern point of view, Tess makes me want to tear my hair out. Passive suffering heroines are hard to take at times, and she beats most of the competition by lengths. It's strange to see her impressions of other characters differ greatly from how they come across for the reader. Characterization overall is thorough, with the men generally getting more attention than the women.Style: Lots of description, often in very slow-moving prose. Dialogue can require a lot of attention when it comes in dialect. Generally the plot and characterization get smothered in the writing style, which detracts from the overall impact. There are just too many words sometimes.Plus: The ending. The depiction of rural society. Minus: Tess's naivete. The writing style. Summary: Great book, but the language doesn't do the plot any favours.