Tess of the D`Urbervilles

Author: Scott Elledge, Stephen Thorne, Thomas Hardy, John Paul Riquelme, James Wood
Category: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 9780679405863
Format : Hardcover
Publisher : Everymans Library

Min Price: 2.00 Max Price: 69.00

Because of its sexual frankness and indictment of Victorian hypocrisy, Hardy`s novel was considered shocking when it was published in 1891. It is the tale of Tess Durbeyfield, a young country girl whose rape by Alec D`Urberville, a distant aristocratic relative, leads to pregnancy. Tess`s baby dies, and she finds work as a dairymaid at a farm where no one knows her story. From that point, her life, which includes marriage with a man, Angel Clare, who fails to realize her worth, enters a downward spiral, culminating in the sensational tragedy that is at the heart of the book. The cynical and sophisticated Alec`s seduction of a country girl, and the self-righteous Angel`s destructive idealization of her, can be seen as symbols of the city`s ruthless exploitation of the English countryside--a common theme in Hardy`s fiction. His compassionate portrait of a young countrywoman was also characteristic of his writing, which never failed to champion the cause of rural lives and values against those of the corrupting city.