Tess of the D'Urbervilles

I have a great admiration for this novel. Hardy doesn’t hold back with this one; it’s edgy, it’s dark and it’s merciless. In this allegorical tale, Tess is your loveable scapegoat, the Christ-figure if you will, that evokes our inmost pity. All she innocently desires is to do the right thing, and we martyr her because we won’t compromise our "armoured" regulations. Yes, Hardy goes way over the top here, and some may criticize him as overly romantic, but considering he was working within the confines of Victorian censorship and he didn't have much choice, this novel was ground-breaking for cleverly breaking the rules.

As a feminist, I consider this novel seminal to the movement in the late 19th century, much like I consider show more Huckleberry Finn seminal to racial awareness of the same period. They may not sound robust enough to our modern ears, but they were amongst the ideas that got the gears turning in the first place. show less

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 show more 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. show less

I've seen a few adaptions but I finally sat down and read the actual book and it is amazing. I've been reading a bunch of Hardy lately and I am so struck by how well he writes women characters. They have so much agency, even though they are imbeded in the system that was already past in the time Hardy was writing. It was a hard read, knowing that it was just getting worse and worse for Tess no matter what. But of all the men who mess her over, I think I am most angry about her useless father. If he could possibly act like a reasonably responsible adult even a small percentage of the time, the compounding tragedies would have no starting point. What a brilliant book.

A very interesting read, though not a particularly enjoyable one. Thomas Hardy is invited to my dead authors fantasy dinner; I'd love to discuss with him all of the unfortunate ways in which Western civilization has upheld this tradition of victim blaming, slut shaming, double standards, etc.

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 show more 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.” show less

Tess of the D'Urbervilles is the kind of book that makes you wish you were back in one of your Brit Lit classes debating it with equally enthusiastic classmates. An erudite novel replete with Biblical, mythological and cultural references left as clues for the close reader to interpret in Thomas Hardy's exploration of whether we are defined by our actions or our intentions.

Hardy's eponymous heroine is a sixteen-year-old country girl at the story's outset, just removed from school and under the guidance of her uneducated parents who have recently discovered their noble ancestry. At their behest, she travels to the nearby estate of a wealthy relative to seek employment and a financially beneficial match. Unfortunately, the supposed show more relatives have in fact appropriated the family name, rather than being born into it, and the naive Tess is set upon and disgraced by the scoundrel son, Alec. Her self-assessed punishment is to run away from family and friends, working in anonymity as milkmaid on a faraway farm.

The remainder of Tess's story is a disheartening reminder that one's past cannot be left behind. She finds love, only to be scorned by a hypocritical husband guilty of her same crime (absent an out of wedlock birth). Her shiftless parents burden her for money in their ignorance regarding her impoverished life. Worst of all, she suffers the renewed advances of the irredeemable Alec.

Tess of the D'Urbervilles is a critical analysis of late 18th century England morals and manners with a healthy dose of Ecclesiastical philosophy thrown in: the repetitive nature of Tess's sad life is mere proof that there is nothing new under the sun. show less

This is an incredible book. Heartbreaking and painstaking in drawing of the main character Tess Durbeyfield (i.e., d’Ubervilles). To start off I am not a big fan of extended poetic descriptions of imaginary lands even if they are loosely based on southern England. That the book ends at Stonehenge seems both fitting and absurd for this reason. The story takes place in Wessex, which is a real locale in the south of England, but the story locations are given pseudonyms. England is now broken up into the South, Midlands, the North, the Borders, Wales, and Scotland.
Although the main character is given so much attention by the omnipotent narrator and Tess herself the reader feels betrayed by how horribly Tess is treated in the story. show more Everything in the story, narrator, Hardy, Fate, Fortune, History, and Family all doom one of the most beautiful, intelligent, well meaning, and innocent women in literature. For that reason, I now have a grudge against Hardy because I was really invested in the story and the final chapters did not sit well with me. I total understand what he was doing but the book comes off now as misogynistic even though I know he probably did not have that intention while writing it. The excellent Introduction to the Bantam edition by Hellman calls Hardy ironic in how he criticizes English customs and morals. In that sense, unknowing Tess is willingly sacrificed on the altar of Irony because Hardy’s opinions are so strong. Hardy is an excellent writer, although maybe not the best stylist. Hardy is very good at describing the words for certain motivations according to class status. It shows that he listened to people’s conversations and what they are trying to say or how they disguised what they are meaning to say. Taking Hellman’s point of view as valid, Hardy understood that common folk people were being fleeced by the upper class all the time. It never ended, and Hardy disapproved. But the class struggle was never ending and would continue. That was the way of the world. Hardy’s narrator even says that Tess’ ancestors may have themselves taken advantage of commoners in their ancient heyday. That cannot be a justification for Tess’ tragic end. That is a presumption about cycles of history and morally fallacious about people being individuals. But that sentiment does appear several times in the book. Hardy for this reason seems to be a pagan believer in gods, and wheels of fate and fortune. Not the Boethius type, but the type that has no Christian element at all. It is my own opinion that Hardy, in Tess, does loathe, social strata in England during the Empire and colonial period. Hardy also seems to distrust the Evangelical and Anglican church as well as heraldry and specious family histories. Ultimately, I believe Hardy wrote this book as a weapon against the established and reform English churches of his day. He appears in his language to be a nonbeliever himself but agreeable to it for convenience and solicitude. Hardy gives the impression that all is fated for good or for ill depending on one’s state in life even though he presents lives lived this way “ironically” (according to Hellman). Reading this was one of the best and most intense reading experiences I’ve ever had, and I am grateful to have finally read it with attention. Was destroying Tess worth of Hardy’s disfavor of religion? As an artistic creation of Hardy’s, we have to say yes. Readers wouldn’t have known her without her story. Does the world owe Hardy anything for doing this to a fictional woman of moral purity? I would say no.
This book, while still fresh in my mind, compares well with Waugh’s, Brideshead Revisited. Oxford education, class distinctions, family ties or lack thereof, loneliness and the lack of confidants to help in personal emergency situations. show less