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Tess of the d'Urbervilles (Bantam Classics) (Paperback)
by Thomas Hardy, Robert B. Heilman
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MSL Pointer Review:
A great, irrestible book in the English language, this novel is tragic and beautifully written; the writer of Tess of the d'Urbervilles was, and remains, unrivalled in evocation of tragic emotion.
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Author: Thomas Hardy, Robert B. Heilman
Publisher: Bantam Classics
Pub. in: May, 1984
ISBN: 0553211684
Pages: 480
Measurements: 6.8 x 4.2 x 0.8 inches
Origin of product: USA
Order code: BA00797
Other information: ISBN-13: 978-0553211689
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- Awards & Credential -
"Hardy is possessed of the conviction that a novel is not a toy, nor an argument; it is a means of giving truthful if harsh and violent impressions of the lives of men and women... In every book three or four figures predominate, and stand up like lightning conductors to attract the force of the elements... In short, nobody can deny Hardy's power - the true novelist's power - to make us believe that his characters are fellow-beings driven by their own passions and idiosyncrasies, while they have-and this is the poet's gift-something symbolical about them which is common to us all." - Virginia Woolf
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- MSL Picks -
Despite its seemingly needless tragedy, its persistently downbeat tone, and its relentlessly persecuted heroine, Thomas Hardy's 1891 novel, Tess of the D'Urbervilles, is without doubt one of the greatest novels I have ever read. And I have read a few. Tess is the only truly well-developed character in the novel, which, coupled with the fact that Hardy renders the landscape of Wessex as to make it a character itself, gives one the sense of a real struggle between humanity and nature. This, for me, is one of the great themes of the novel - the tension between nature and the artifices with which we fill our relations with other people. The beauty of Hardy's pastoral setting is never idyllic - Hardy keeps us always aware that human society, with its false moral standards and technological advancements, is ever encroaching upon the already vanished past.
As the novel begins, Tess Durbeyfield's irresponsible wastrel of a father is casually and jokingly informed by the local minister that he is a descendant of a long-degenerated and disenfranchised noble family, the D'Urbervilles, whose influence stretches back to the Norman invasion. This simple, careless act, nothing more than a name, wreaks such havoc upon everyone in the novel, that I'm actually having a hard time right now even looking at the title - the name itself, now having read the novel, is such a powerful condemnation of status, of privilege, of reputation, of all the injustices of English society from the eighteenth century through the time of this novel, almost the dawn of the twentieth. Sent by her nearly indigent parents, whose heads have swelled with the possibilities of lineage, Tess leaves her home in Marlott, going to claim kinship with the last apparently wealthy D'Urberville, in the village of Trantridge. There she meets Alec D'Urberville, who seduces her. The rest of this powerful novel shows Tess Durbeyfield attempting to piece together a reputable life out of a situation and a condition in which respectability is fundamentally denied her.
Tess is a novel steeped, perhaps even choked, with tradition - history, literature, theology, philosphy, economics - Hardy's frame of reference calls all of these to account through the course of the novel. Tess, ostensibly a simple country girl, is forced to reckon with the accumulated weight of human knowledge and thought, no small burden for a girl with only the kind of basic education available in a small rural town. As readers, we are asked to measure the applicability, the efficacy, of the Bible next to Shakespeare, next to Greek mythology next to art - to determine if any of these are capable of fathoming what it means to be human, to endure the myriad experiences of human life, both good and ill.
In her dealings with the changeable Alec D'Urberville, the almost-modern Angel Clare, the farm-hands Izz Huett and Marian, her poor, practically minded mother, Joan, Tess experiences so much of life, mostly of the harshest kind. For me, this is the key facet of the novel. Tess endures. Despite all of her hardships, which are hard indeed, and in the face of the worst kinds of scrutiny and deprecation, both from others and from herself, Tess exhibits a kind of composure, threshold for pain, and strength that are all quite amazing. Daniel Defoe's eighteenth-century "Moll Flanders" is the first character that immediately comes to mind, just in terms of comparable pluck in the face of such overweaning odds.
Though many may disagree with me, I think that Tess, more than simply being the protagonist of the novel, is a real heroine. She is so insistently admirable, so determined to live despite all the forces and pressures arrayed against her from the very outset of the novel, when as a 15 year old girl, she is asked to restore the family's fortunes - it is really just astounding. I regret that I had never read "Tess" before, but I am supremely glad that I have had the chance to do so now. A novel cannot get a higher recommendation from me.
(Quoting from Melvin Pena, USA)
Target readers:
Readers who love classic novels.
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Thomas Hardy was born near Egdon Heath in Dorset, in 1840, the eldest child of a prosperous stonemason. As a youth he trained as an architect and in 1862 obtained a post in London. During this time he began seriously to write poetry, but Under the Greenwood Tree (1872), his first Wessex novel, did well enough to convince him to continue writing. In 1874, Far from the Maddening Crowd, published serially and anonymously in the Cornhill Magazine, became a great success. Hardy married Emma Gifford in 1874, and in 1885 they settled at Max Gate in Dorchester, where he lived the rest of his life. There he wrote The Return of the Native (1878), The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886), Tess of the d'Urbervilles (1891), and Jude the Obscure (1895). With Tess, Hardy clashed with the expectations of his audience; a storm of abuse broke over the "infidelity" and "obscenity" of this great novel he had subtitled "A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented." Jude the Obscure aroused even greater indignation and was denounced as pornography. He published Wessex Poems in 1898, Poems of the Past and Present in 1901, and from 1903 to 1908, The Dynasts. Hardy died in 1928.
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From The Publisher
Violated by one man, forsaken by another, Tess Durbeyfield is the magnificent and spirited heroine of Thomas Hardy’s immortal work. Of all the great English novelists, no one writes more eloquently of tragic destiny than Hardy. With the innocent and powerless victim Tess, he creates profound sympathy for human frailty while passionately indicting the injustices of Victorian society. Scorned by outraged readers upon its publication in 1891, Tess of the d’Urbervilles is today one of the enduring classics of nineteenth-century literature.
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PHASE THE FIRST
THE MAIDEN
I
On an evening in the latter part of May a middle-aged man was walking homeward from Shaston1 to the village of Marlott, in the adjoining Vale of Blakemore or Blackmoor. The pair of legs that carried him were rickety, and there was a bias in his gait which inclined him somewhat to the left of a straight line. He occasionally gave a smart nod, as if in confirmation of some opinion, though he was not thinking of anything in particular. An empty egg-basket was slung upon his arm, the nap of his hat was ruffled, a patch being quite worn away at its brim where his thumb came in taking it off. Presently he was met by an elderly parson astride on a gray mare, who, as he rode, hummed a wandering tune.
"Good night t'ee," said the man with the basket.
"Good night, Sir John," said the parson.
The pedestrian, after another pace or two, halted, and turned round.
"Now, sir, begging your pardon; we met last market-day on this road about this time, and I zaid2 'Good night,' and you made reply 'Good night, Sir John,' as now."
"I did," said the parson.
"And once before that--near a month ago."
"I may have."
"Then what might your meaning be in calling me 'Sir John' these different times, when I be plain Jack Durbeyfield, the haggler?"3
The parson rode a step or two nearer.
"It was only my whim," he said; and, after a moment's hesitation: "It was on account of a discovery I made some little time ago, whilst I was hunting up pedigrees for the new county history. I am Parson Tringham, the antiquary, of Stagfoot Lane. Don't you really know, Durbeyfield, that you are the lineal representative of the ancient and knightly family of the d'Urbervilles, who derive their descent from Sir Pagan d'Urberville, that renowned knight who came from Normandy with William the Conqueror, as appears by Battle Abbey Roll?"4
"Never heard it before, sir!"
"Well, it's true. Throw up your chin a moment, so that I may catch the profile of your face better. Yes, that's the d'Urberville nose and chin--a little debased. Your ancestor was one of the twelve knights who assisted the Lord of Estremavilla in Normandy in his conquest of Glamorganshire. Branches of your family held manors over all this part of England; their names appear in the Pipe Rolls5 in the time of King Stephen. In the reign of King John one of them was rich enough to give a manor to the Knights Hospitallers; and in Edward the Second's time your forefather Brian was summoned to Westminster to attend the great Council there. You declined a little in Oliver Cromwell's time, but to no serious extent, and in Charles the Second's reign you were made Knights of the Royal Oak6 for your loyalty. Aye, there have been generations of Sir Johns among you, and if knighthood were hereditary, like a baronetcy, as it practically was in old times, when men were knighted from father to son, you would be Sir John now."
"Ye don't say so!"
"In short," concluded the parson, decisively smacking his leg with his switch, "there's hardly such another family in England."
"Daze7 my eyes, and isn't there?" said Durbeyfield. "And here have I been knocking about, year after year, from pillar to post, as if I was no more than the commonest feller in the parish... And how long hev this news about me been knowed, Pa'son Tringham?"
The clergyman explained that, as far as he was aware, it had quite died out of knowledge, and could hardly be said to be known at all. His own investigations had begun on a day in the preceding spring when, having been engaged in tracing the vicissitudes of the d'Urberville family, he had observed Durbeyfield's name on his waggon, and had thereupon been led to make inquiries about his father and grandfather till he had no doubt on the subject.
"At first I resolved not to disturb you with such a useless piece of information," said he. "However, our impulses are too strong for our judgment sometimes. I thought you might perhaps know something of it all the while."
"Well, I have heard once or twice, 'tis true, that my family had seen better days afore they came to Blackmoor. But I took no notice o't, thinking it to mean that we had once kept two horses where we now keep only one. I've got a wold8 silver spoon, and a wold graven seal at home, too; but, Lord, what's a spoon and seal?... And to think that I and these noble d'Urbervilles were one flesh all the time. 'Twas said that my gr't-grandfer had secrets, and didn't care to talk of where he came from. . . . And where do we raise our smoke, now, parson, if I may make so bold; I mean, where do we d'Urbervilles live?"
"You don't live anywhere. You are extinct - as a county family."
"That's bad."
"Yes - what the mendacious family chronicles call extinct in the male line - that is, gone down--gone under."
"Then where do we lie?"
"At Kingsbere-sub-Greenhill: rows and rows of you in your vaults, with your effigies under Purbeck-marble9 canopies."
"And where be our family mansions and estates?"
"You haven't any."
"Oh? No lands neither?"
"None; though you once had 'em in abundance, as I said, for your family consisted of numerous branches. In this county there was a seat of yours at Kingsbere, and another at Sherton, and another at Millpond, and another at Lullstead, and another at Wellbridge."
"And shall we ever come into our own again?"
"Ah - that I can't tell!"
"And what had I better do about it, sir?" asked Durbeyfield, after a pause.
"Oh - nothing, nothing; except chasten yourself with the thought of 'how are the mighty fallen.'10 It is a fact of some interest to the local historian and genealogist, nothing more. There are several families among the cottagers of this county of almost equal lustre. Good night."
"But you'll turn back and have a quart of beer wi' me on the strength o't, Pa'son Tringham? There's a very pretty brew in tap at The Pure Drop--though, to be sure, not so good as at Rolliver's."
"No, thank you--not this evening, Durbeyfield. You've had enough already." Concluding thus the parson rode on his way, with doubts as to his discretion in retailing this curious bit of lore.
When he was gone Durbeyfield walked a few steps in a profound reverie, and then sat down upon the grassy bank by the roadside, depositing his basket before him. In a few minutes a youth appeared in the distance, walking in the same direction as that which had been pursued by Durbeyfield. The latter, on seeing him, held up his hand, and the lad quickened his pace and came near.
"Boy, take up that basket! I want 'ee to go on an errand for me."
The lath-like stripling frowned. "Who be you, then, John Durbeyfield, to order me about and call me 'boy'? You know my name as well as I know yours!"
"Do you, do you? That's the secret - that's the secret! Now obey my orders, and take the message I'm going to charge 'ee wi'. . . . Well, Fred, I don't mind telling you that the secret is that I'm one of a noble race--it has been just found out by me this present afternoon, p.m." And as he made the announcement, Durbeyfield, declining from his sitting position, luxuriously stretched himself out upon the bank among the daisies.
The lad stood before Durbeyfield, and contemplated his length from crown to toe.
"Sir John d'Urberville-that's who I am," continued the prostrate man. "That is if knights were baronets--which they be. 'Tis recorded in history all about me. Dost know of such a place, lad, as Kingsbere-sub-Greenhill?"
"Ees. I've been there to Greenhill Fair."
"Well, under the church of that city there lie-"
" 'Tisn't a city, the place I mean; leastwise 'twaddn' when I was there - 'twas a little one-eyed, blinking sort o' place."
"Never you mind the place, boy, that's not the question before us. Under the church of that there parish lie my ancestors-hundreds of 'em-in coats of mail and jewels, in gr't lead coffins weighing tons and tons. There's not a man in the county o' South-Wessex that's got grander and nobler skillentons11 in his family than I."
"Oh?"
"Now take up that basket, and goo on to Marlott, and when you've come to The Pure Drop Inn, tell 'em to send a horse and carriage to me immed'ately, to carry me hwome. And in the bottom o' the carriage they be to put a noggin o' rum in a small bottle, and chalk it up to my account. And when you've done that goo on to my house with the basket, and tell my wife to put away that washing, because she needn't finish it, and wait till I come hwome, as I've news to tell her."
As the lad stood in a dubious attitude, Durbeyfield put his hand in his pocket, and produced a shilling, one of the chronically few that he possessed.
"Here's for your labour, lad."
This made a difference in the young man's estimate of the position.
"Yes, Sir John. Thank 'ee. Anything else I can do for 'ee, Sir John?"
"Tell 'em at hwome that I should like for supper, - well, lamb's fry if they can get it; and if they can't, black-pot; and if they can't get that, well, chitterlings12 will do."
"Yes, Sir John."
The boy took up the basket, and as he set out the notes of a brass band were heard from the direction of the village.
"What's that?" said Durbeyfield. "Not on account o' I?"
" 'Tis the women's club-walking, Sir John. Why, your da'ter is one o' the members."
"To be sure - I'd quite forgot it in my thoughts of greater things! Well, vamp13 on to Marlott, ...
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A reader (MSL quote), Canada
<2007-03-12 00:00>
Thomas Hardy's Tess of the D'Urbervilles is one of the best stories I've ever read. Its characters, especially Tess herself, are so alive and memorable that they stay in your mind long after you've finished the book. That being said, though, it's also not a novel for the casual reader. This book is so thought-provoking and, ultimately, heartbraking that it can't be easily forgotten, and will more than likely leave you with an overwhelming sadness for a long time afterward. I read a lot, and material with very different subject matters, so I'm not being melodramatic when I say that this book left me extremely choked up, and almost on the verge of tears. For a guy in his mid-20's who never gets emotional, I think that's saying quite a lot. It certainly left me with a lot of respect for the author. The reader comes to care so much about Tess, and agonize over the way her life turns out, that it becomes almost unbearable at times. For a fictional tale to have that effect on a person is quite incredible. Difficult or not, anyone who is interested in reading a brilliant and moving story that deserves to be called a classic should read Tess of the D'Urbervilles.
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Andy Lau (MSL quote), Hong Kong
<2007-03-12 00:00>
What I have written below is the assignment of my homework. (I'm a 9th grade student)
Tess's life was destroyed by men who loved her. But the right man hesitated, and the wrong man found her first. This was how her life was ruined and how miserable she was. If you want more derails, it is better for you to read the book yourself.
This book is a perfect demonstration that bad things happened to good people. But I have to admitt that it is quite difficult to struggle through the beginning. But after a few chapters, enjoyment continued filling my heart and eventually I could not stop reading untill i have finished it.
Alec d'Urbervill was the man who destroyed Tess's life. Tess met with lots of knotty difficulties in her life. It is fallacious to say that ir was her fault.
Tess is really a complex character. Her life was full of love , hate, depression and misery. Fortunately, she met Angel Clare who filled her heart with happiness.
Good writing do not often go hand in hand. But Hardy did it. THis is a tragic story. Why is the world so unfair?
Hardy used a magical way to write this book. Once you start, you can't stop. As you travel through this book, you will find yourself lost in admiration for the strong, honest woman.
Hardy showed me the true colours of depreesion and hapiness. He did a nice job and i did appreciate it.
It is definitely the most beautifully crafted book i have ever read. This book is truly worth reading and I hope you are not going to miss it.
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A reader (MSL quote), USA
<2007-03-12 00:00>
I'm many years out of college and thought I should start reading some more of the classics. Previous favorites of mine have been The Sound and the Fury, Jane Eyre, and Pride and Prejudice. I saw Tess of the D'Urbervilles on my sister's bookshelf and for about a year I considered reading it. Finally, I picked it up and began. Wow! I read it in about three days. I never expected I would feel so much by reading this book. I cried when she baptized Sorrow herself. Her concerns that he be buried in the churchyard and her efforts to ensure he was were touching. I wanted to help Tess Durbeyfield. I thought she was a very complex character - she was sweet and unworldly but she wasn't actually stupid. And she was strong in many ways - for example, her family relied on Tess for so many things - eventually even their support. In fact, I hated her family for not working harder and making their own sacrifices. All the burden was on poor Tess. I also wanted to shake some sense into Angel. He really did wrong by Tess - although he eventually realizes this, it comes too late. The only thing I really did not care for was the sudden inclusion of a minor character (who we met earlier)into the end of the book and the implication that she would play an important role in the future of a major character. I barely knew this minor character and NOBODY could compare to Tess of the D'Urbervilles. If you are reading this to find a good book, ignore the negative reviews by high-school students and buy this book NOW. It's unforgettable.
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Kazza (MSL quote), USA
<2007-03-12 00:00>
Having just finished this book a mere few hours ago the pain of it is fresh in my mind, but I'm sure it will distract me for weeks, such is the intensity of this tragedy. The only other novel of Hardy's I have ever read - Jude the Obscure - was a good book, stable and interesting, though not compelling until it's heart-wrenching twist three quarters of the way through the book. It was, in essence, more a social commentary, so it was with some surprise that I absorbed the constant emotion and passion that was this book. The basic storyline is as follows: Tess Durbeyfield, a young woman of a poor country family, is sent to visit her rich cousin, Alec d'Urbeville, after learning of her (perhaps mythical) relation to the ancient family which bears his name. In the obscure randomness that fate casts over life, innocent Tess is then pursued by perhaps the only man she could never tolerate (Alec), who is as his most evil in the early parts of the book. At Alec's house Tess works as a keeper to the poultry and is assaulted by Alec's constant sexual attentions until finally (and this is suggested rather than explained), exhausted and numb, she submits to intercourse with him. She later gives birth to a baby, whom she names Sorrow, who soon dies; and then meets a man she had glimpsed once years before at a dance: Angel Clare. Working together at a milking farm, they become drawn to each other despite Tess's unwillingness to incite the attentions of any man. Their love for each other grows but Tess knows that she dare not enter into marriage considering her past and a society that is both ludcrously religious and prejudiced. The strength of her love finally wears her down and they wed. However, on that very night she confesses her past, and is cruelly thrown aside by Clare, who now begins to view her as an impure woman separate to the Tess he had always loved (despite his past containing a similar history). After suffering years of solitutde and hardship, Tess finally gives up on Clare and falls in the way of Alec d'Urbeville again, relying upon him for the care of herself and her family. Sick and wasted, Clare eventually realizes the mistake he has made in casting Tess aside and finds her at d'Urbeville's mansion: too late. This brings the story to its close where greater tragedy ensues.
The book was brilliant in its emotive persuasion and its depiction of Tess, who is impossible to not feel for, and, indeed, love. The misfortunes of her life are never self-inflicted, and we are left to wonder at the end at the awful nature of a world that would bring such sorrow upon one person. Tess is wonderful, stoic, and pure in her unyielding love for Clare; d'Urbeville is horrible in his initial portrayal as the villain who will singlehandedly destroy Tess's life, though is perhaps a little less repulsive at the end as one understand's the depths of his feeling for her; and Clare is the one who holds in his hands the ability to restore all past wrongness and find joy himself, but tragically fails to do so because of pride and convention.
Overall, there were only two problems I had with the storyline: the first being Tess's succumbing to Alec's sexual persuasion in the beginning - if we are to believe that she is repulsed so many times by Alec's advances so completely and bodily, how are we to believe that she so easily concedes in one (unmentioned) incident? Her strength is greater than that. And the second is one which has been mentioned by another reviewer here: the ending, where a minor, unimportant character is introduced as a means through which to resolve everything, where in fact she is incapable of doing so, since we know nothing about this character, and can therefore put no faith in her.
Despite these minor quibbles the whole of the book, with its engaging plot and brilliant prose, is worth more than the sum of its parts, with the pain of lost love being the principle effect one experiences long after the reading is over. Tess is beautiful.
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