Thomas Hardy: Tess of the d'Urbervilles

• ISBN-13: 9781593082284
• Publisher: Barnes & Noble
• Publication date: 6/5/2005
• Pages: 544

Highly controversial because of its frank look at the sexual hypocrisy of Victorian society, Thomas Hardy's Tess of the d'Urbervilles was nonetheless a great commercial success when it appeared in 1891. It is now considered one of the finest novels in English.
 Using richly poetic language to frame a shattering narrative of love, seduction, betrayal, and murder, Hardy tells the story of Tess Durbeyfield, a beautiful young woman living with her impoverished family in Hardy's fictionalized Wessex, a pastoral community in southwestern England. After the family learns of their connection to the wealthy d'Urbervilles, they send Tess to claim a portion of their fortune. She meets and is seduced by the dissolute Alec d'Urberville and secretly bears a child, Sorrow, who dies in infancy. Angel Clare, a very different man, seems to offer Tess love and salvation, but he rejects her - on their wedding night - after learning of her past. Emotionally bereft, financially impoverished, and victimized by the self-righteous rigidity of English social morality, Tess escapes from her vise of passion through a horrible, desperate act. 
 With its compassionate portrait of a young rural woman, powerful criticism of social convention, and disarming consideration of the role of destiny in human life, Tess of the d'Urbervilles is one of the most moving and memorable of Hardy's novels.
 
 This book should be called Tess of the D'UrberVILES.
 Aha, see what I did there?
 Joking aside, there is nothing funny about this book. It is literally a sad fest from beginning to end. Now that you have that out of the way though, and you know that you will derive no happiness from reading this book, you can sit back and enjoy it. Because it really is beautifully written, and when you're reading it you forget a little bit about how miserable it all is.
 Really, this book is one thumper of a social commentary. The subtitle, not presented in this addition, is actually A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented. You would laugh if you knew the story beforehand and read that subtitle. Thanks to me, you can enjoy the inside joke now. Tess is a poor "farm girl," despite the fact that what I can tell, her father and mother do little to no work. She's beautiful and sweet and pure, until Alec D'Urberville comes into her path. A kindly clergyman alerts her father to his ancestry, coming from the illustrious D'Urberville line going back to William the Conqueror, and so her parents send her off to claim kin with the D'Urberville family living up the road. Except they bought into the name, don't actually come from the line. And Alec is a horny philanderer.
 All of this results in the destruction of Tess' life. It's not her fault - and that's the key. She might be blamed for being weak-willed and succumbing to her parents' wishes too easily, but other than that, her plight is the plight of many women before her and probably many after. What Hardy points out is the hypocrisy of society in blaming and punishing the woman for actions outside her control. Even when she attempts to distance herself from the circumstances of her disgrace, she is still held accountable by those who purport to be more understanding. She can't escape and her weakness leads her into more problems, until, finally, there is no way out.
 Well, that's about as best as I can describe it without giving you the entire story. Although, if you're really, super desperate to know the full tale, Wikipedia is your friend. Now let's talk about some characters.
 Alec is a giant douchenozzle to end all douchenozzles. He's manipulative in the extreme. Angel Clare, the other purported protagonist of the tale, is a sweetheart with some serious identity issues. He's parted from his clergyman father because he disagrees with his extremist religious views, but he still can't escape his roots. It's a common problem. No matter how old you get, it's hard to break old habits and ways of thought. Another lesson to take away.
 Overall: B+
 I enjoyed it, mostly because I didn't expect a lot of happiness to come out of it. There were some dry bits, but even in the amidst of wordy paragraphs celebrating odes to the beauty of the countryside, Hardy's craft is obvious. He was a great writer. So there you have it. Don't read this if you want to be happy and have faith in humanity after.