This link , of which I have not read the entirety yet because it contains spoilers says Tess is sentimental, contains too long-winded descriptions of meadows and farming techniques and inspires only incredulity. Then it goes on to criticize Tess for her passivity. That's a bit harsh. I liked the section on the dairy. Poor Tess is trying her best. What do they expect, Wonder Woman?
Omg, I can't believe THE IGNORANCE!
Of course it's detailed, of course it's long-winded, of course it's sentimental. We are reading Victorian, people, not 1950s. The more sentimental, the better as far as the Romantics were concerned (which Naturalism stems from).
Tess does not stand up for herself because she is naïve, a 19th century woman and because Hardy chose such a character. And why does he choose such a character who walks into her own misfortune (SPOILER twice over even SPOILER OVER) with her eyes wide open and her parents there to witness it? Because Naturalism is all about man being subject to whatever fate throws at them. In fact, if she had stood up for herself, she would have succumbed anyway and been forced on her knees. Simple. It's sad, I agree, and you can't read much of that because you get depressed very easily, but that is the message: man in the face of all the odds is a futile being. Small and insignificant, in spite of all his skill, intelligence and wit.
If she hadn't been raped by Alec d'Urberville she would have been someone else.
I agree that there is no message (apart from the above of course), but that's the point. A Naturalist novel always leaves you as a reader completely empty (I have read quite a few of them). There is no use to life, there is no use to the novel itself, there is just...nothing at the end of it. The story is one of many that are not written down and that happen every day. And every day people get hurt that way and no-one cares.indeed...
It leaves you
I love it(from time to time)
One has to laugh before being happy, because otherwise one risks to die before having laughed.
"Je crains [...] que l'âme ne se vide à ces passe-temps vains, et que le fin du fin ne soit la fin des fins." (Edmond Rostand, Cyrano de Bergerac, Acte III, Scène VII)
I will have to talk to you later about naturalism when I've finished the book.
This tells me all I need to know about this site. Having just reread The Inferno, I take umbrage.I write these reviews in part for the personal challenge and in part to get other people interested in reading old books. I also do it to expose some old books as a waste of time, famous only because of their age. The Divine Comedy falls into the second category. For some reason, Dante’s masterpiece survived for centuries and remains to this day a plague on decent, annoyed readers.
I wonder if that reviewer actually read the book. He remembers it much differently to me.
Lol!
Where did French girls come from?
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