Tess of the d'Urbervilles

(1891)

This novel is generally regarded as Hardy's finest. A brilliant tale of seduction, love, betrayal, and murder, Tess of the d'Ubervilles yields to narrative convention by punishing Tess's sin, but boldly exposes this standard denouement of unforgiving morality as cruelly unjust. Throughout, Hardy's most lyrical and atmospheric language frames his shattering narrative. The novel centers around a young woman who struggles to find her place in society. When it is discovered that the low-class Durbeyfield family is in reality the d'Urbervilles, the last of a famous bloodline that dates back hundreds of years, the mother sends her eldest daughter, Tess, to beg money from relations with the obvious desire that Tess wed the rich Mr. d'Urberville. Thus begins a tale of woe in which a wealthy man cruelly mistreats a poor girl. Tess is taken advantage of by Mr. d'Urberville and leaves his house, returning home to have their child, who subsequently dies. Throughout the rest of this fascinating novel, Tess is tormented by guilt at the thought of her impurity and vows to never marry. She is tested when she meets Angel, the clever son of a priest, and falls in love with him. After days of pleading, Tess gives in to Angel and consents to marry him. Angel deserts Tess when he finds the innocent country girl he fell in love with is not so pure.

~

I am so happy that in my teenage years I found this marvellous book in a second hand book shop. Till then I was not aware of Sir Thomas Hardy. I started reading and found that it was hard to put down. Being a strong adorer of mother Nature, I was thrilled by the author's minute descriptions of nature in old England. I was dumbfounded by his observations and narration. Coming to the story, I became an immediate fan of the Tess, the heroine. In other words I can say that her character has changed me and my personality. Her simplicity, innocence, perseverance, dedication and most importantly her love made me to be always like her in my daily life. Instantly Hardy became my favourite author and I never stopped reading almost all of his novels. Every person who likes romantic novels must read this novel first. I will never forget Tess in my life.--Submitted by Velijala Phanindra Charya, India

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Recent Forum Posts on Tess of the d'Urbervilles

The Philosophical Parameter

Some Hardy scholars write that a major parameter of Tess and Hardy's others writings is his philosophical thinking. It's a little hard for us in the twenty-first century to grasp much of this because while philosophy was of much interest a hundred and more years ago, it's not to us now. Obviously, to gather the most complete understanding of Tess requires us to understand Hardy's thinking. Without suggesting I'm any kind of authority in this subject, my understanding is that Hardy and many serious intellectuals on his time believed that as society was evolving, man's character was evolving in step. There was a belief that this evolution progressed through phases that were termed religious, metaphysical and sociological. In the sociological, the highest level, people were more in charge of their own fate. Hardy believed, as did Leslie Steven, the philosopher who influenced him most, that within the sociological phase a person should strive for values of "loving-kindness" or "altruism." The idea was for man to put less importance on himself and his own happiness and more into attempts at well-meaning toward others. In this aim, the link we now accept between living a good life and happiness is disconnected. A good (i.e. altruistic) life is one that might be unhappy. In this belief, a variant of the better known Utilitarianism, the altruistic man would see himself as part of all other beings and less an independent social unit for pursuit of his individual happiness with relative indifference to others. Regardless of whether we today accept any of this thinking, it does help understand Hardy's characters, particularly his principle characters such as Tess. What may seem unwise behavior in Tess makes more sense if her personal happiness wasn't intended to be her foremost goal. If we can understand her as a person who evolved striving to benefit the lives of those in her world without determined focus on her own happiness, her behavior makes more sense. In the final phase of the novel, Hardy terms it "fulfillment", which seems strange since she's lost her last chance for happiness and her future. Hardy, however, sees her self-sacrifice and final arrangements for Angle, Liza-Lu and, indirectly, her family as an altruistic fulfillment--a phase in which she's used her life to do all the good for others she possibly can. (Some of us might feel Alec got the short end of her benevolence). Whether or not any of us find this supposed philosophical parameter of the novel credible, it does seem reasonable that understanding the novel requires more an understanding of what Hardy intended, a product of the thinking of his time, and perhaps less emphasis on the thinking of the twenty-first century, from which we modern readers are a product. Hardy, after all, would probably find it as taxing to understand us and our times and we do him and his times.

Posted By Maple at Mon 19 Nov 2012, 11:25 AM in Tess of the d'Urbervilles || 1 Reply

Tess's Choices

Some Tess readers say Tess made bad choices. What do you think were the choices she made and which do you think were poor ones? My view is that the only choice Tess made in the novel was her murder of Alec, which was probably made in the moment but done deliberately and was premeditatedly. All the other choices she made were choices of necessity. Probably her fatal flaw was to love Angel, but in my view who we love isn't a matter of choice. Once in love I'd argue most of us are not responsible for our actions. Boldwood in Far from the Madding Crowd would probably agree.

Posted By Maple at Sat 3 Nov 2012, 9:08 PM in Tess of the d'Urbervilles || 8 Replies

Alternative ending for Tess

What would have happened if Tess's bad luck had changed at Wintoncester? It seems quite likely she would have received a reprieve and possibly even a parole after a number of years (see here) No doubt Angel would have hired a good lawyer to defend her case. Would he have stuck by her though, or would he have divorced her while she was in prison? He would not know how long she would be in jail, and he had the grounds for divorce. Surely he would not divorce Tess and then marry her sister (especially as marrying a sisten-in-law was illegal). I read in the library that Thomas Hardy said that Angel would eventually have started taunting Tess for her second fall if she had lived.

Posted By kev67 at Fri 29 Jun 2012, 8:08 AM in Tess of the d'Urbervilles || 4 Replies

Tess OTD'U film and TV adaptions

Which are the good film and TV adaptions? I once saw the first 25 mins of the Roman Polanski film. The acting was good but some of the accents set my teeth on edge. I could only cope with 25 mins because I could see what was coming next. The recent BBC adaption with Gemma Arterton looks quite good from the little I've seen. It looks like a good cast, although Gemma Arterton is maybe a tad strapping. She looks like a tennis player. Eddie Redmayne must have had a job lugging her about. There was another BBC adaption in 1998. I haven't seen that one neither, but I notice it starred Justine Waddell, who by hardy any coincidence to anyone but me, also played Estella in the previous book I read, Great Expectations. BTW, I enjoyed looking through this tumblr webpage.

Posted By kev67 at Thu 28 Jun 2012, 2:08 PM in Tess of the d'Urbervilles || 30 Replies

This stuff about bloodlines

The book makes a great deal of Tess's ancient family bloodline. It's not something Tess herself cares much about, but Parson Tringham finds the subject very interesting, Jack Durbeyfield becomes incredibly conceited about it, and even Angel Clare thinks it is important. Angel thinks all these grand, old families have become exhausted. It all seems very odd for rational people to hold such store by it, as if the quality of nobility, not merely land and titles, is passed on intransmutable with the Y chromosone across the generations. Tess does not have a Y chromosone so she wouldn't inherit it anyway. At one point Tess says to herself that she is half her mother and gets her looks from her. I thought Hardy was poking fun at the attitude, but then Tess does seem to inherit some of her ancestors' traits. There's the slight resemblance to the portraits in the d'Urbervilles old house, the legend of the d'Urberville coach, and Tess's occasional flashes of aggression recalling the knights of old. By the end I wondered whether Hardy thought there was something in it. BTW, according to my father, I am descended from a nobleman titled Sir Willoughby de Broke.

Posted By kev67 at Sun 24 Jun 2012, 11:05 AM in Tess of the d'Urbervilles || 1 Reply

The worst thing that Angel did?

Contains possible spoilers. I have just been reading this bleak essay titled "Hardy's Reading in Schopenhauer: Tess of the d'Urbervilles". It seems that Angel's differences with the Church of England's 39 articles went far beyond whether the resurrection was physical or spiritual. He does not seem to believe in any afterlife at all. He can't even bring himself to tell Tess they will meet after death. Of course Tess deferentially believes whatever Angel does. It might have been something along these lines that Tess tells Alec in chapter 46 (although it might also have been about determinism or a lack of belief in an interventionist God). When Alec starts behaving like a rake again, it may be because he's been persuaded there is no damnation. Also in chapter 46 Tess tells Alec she is forbidden to pray because God wouldn't change His plans on her account, so how could she repent before her execution? Imagine reading that in 1891. For both Alec and Tess it's either oblivion or damnation. Depending on your religious beliefs, that would be the worst thing that Angel did.

Posted By kev67 at Fri 22 Jun 2012, 8:06 PM in Tess of the d'Urbervilles || 1 Reply

Inspirations for Tess

I read someone say that Thomas Hardy collected newspaper articles of tragic events and used them in his stories, so I looked on the internet for who may have inspired the story for Tess. Apparently, one inspiration seems to have been the Elizabeth Martha Brown, whose execution Hardy witnessed himself as a 16-year-old. Another happier inspiration seems to have been Augusta Bugler, who he first spotted when she was an 18-year-old milkmaid. Thomas Hardy seems to have been as lecherous as Alec d'Urberville.

Posted By kev67 at Fri 22 Jun 2012, 6:50 PM in Tess of the d'Urbervilles || 10 Replies

Within the last ten chapters

I am within the last ten chapters but I think it will be hard to read them. Poor Tess, I don't want to discover what that horrible Mr Hardy has in store for her. I think I would rather the rest of the book be a complete anticlimax in which Angel comes back next chapter and tells her, "I don't care about all that. Let's all move to a farm in East Anglia."

Posted By kev67 at Sat 16 Jun 2012, 12:25 PM in Tess of the d'Urbervilles || 17 Replies

Is Tess the hardest working girl in literature?

She's such a grafter. She has to all sorts of hard farm labouring tasks at Flintcomb-Ash, even those which men would normally be expected to do (especially as men were paid more). At Talbothy's dairy, she was normally the first or second to get up in the morning. On top of that, she is quite prepared to walk thirty miles in a day. She must have been very strong and her hands must have been as tough as leather. I wonder where she gets it from because her father is bone idle and her mother is hardly any better.

Posted By kev67 at Sat 16 Jun 2012, 12:10 PM in Tess of the d'Urbervilles || 7 Replies

Plot hole? (chapter 51)

How is it Farmer Groby, who is so mean to Tess, recognises her in chapter 33 well enough to know she isn't a 'maid' but does not recognise Alec d'Urberville in chapter 41. In chap 33 it says: "Two men came out and passed by her among the rest. One of them had stared her up and down in surprise, and she fancied he was a Trantridge man, though that village lay so many miles off that Trantridge folk were rarities here." Trantridge/Pentridge seems about twenty miles from Buckland Newton, the nearest place I can find to Flintcombe Ash/Nettlecomb Tout, where Groby has his farm. The meeting in chap 33 is (I think) in Marlott/Marnhull which about eight miles from Flintcome Ash and twelve from Trantridge/Pentridge in another direction.

Posted By kev67 at Wed 13 Jun 2012, 7:31 AM in Tess of the d'Urbervilles || 6 Replies

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Tess of the d'Urbervilles

(1891)

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