A tragic story narrated with exquisite prose. Tess is an unforgettable woman, blessed with beauty and character but seemingly cursed by the fates. She is certainly unlucky in love.
Hardy was a master of the craft: the settings, characters, the plot, and the narrative voice are first rate.
The story saddened me so much at times that I had to put it aside. Doing so was paying homage to Thomas Hardy. And I always returned to the book, an even greater compliment to him.
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Debuting in 1990, the Thrift Editions library of classic literature is a top choice for teachers, students, librarians, and recreational readers around the world. Dover’s longstanding mission of exceptional value has consistently offered excellence in classic fiction, nonfiction, plays, and poetry.
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From the Publisher
Tragedy haunts the works of Hardy (1840–1928), whose fiction abounds in star-crossed lovers and other characters thwarted by fate or their own shortcomings.
His outspoken criticism of Victorian society excited such profound controversy that the author abandoned fiction and in the 20th century published only poetry.
Like his fictional heroine, the artist fell victim to a rigidly oppressive moral code.
A ne'er-do-well exploits his gentle daughter's beauty for social advancement in this masterpiece of tragic fiction. Hardy's 1891 novel defied convention to focus on the rural lower class for a frank treatment of sensuality and religion. Then and now, his sympathetic portrait of a victim of Victorian hypocrisy offers compelling reading.
“A strong woman who recklessly throws away her strength, she is worse than a weak woman who has never had any strength to throw away.”
“Beauty lay not in the thing, but in what the thing symbolized.”
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Reviews with images
Jean-Francois Millet’s Angelus is its Opposite
The Angelus of Jean-Francois Millet precisely epitomizes the opposite of the theme of Thomas Hardy’s Tess.Europe, thirty years before the turn of the last century, still has a peasant class which clung to a way of life that had been practiced, albeit with evolution and adaption, for centuries. Time was marked by the time it took to say Hail Marys and morning, noon and night were marked by the recitation of the Angelus—recalling the entrance of God into human form.Tess is no opponent of the Sermon on the Mount. But in a time of Low vs. High Church she sees nature as the primary guide of life. Herself naturally good and beautiful she gradually comes to reject the idea of an Omniscient Providence and sees no need to seek personal forgiveness.She is born out of time. While society values birth and status and the Church preaches creeds and gospels which never strike a chord, Tess craves for a time when the gods of nature held sway over the hearts and minds of men.Hardy’s novel then allows the reader to look into the abandonment of organized religion by the lower classes. While it’s true that their conversion to communism was short lived, the diminished importance of religion has persisted to the point where most people need to have Millet’s masterpiece explained to them.Tess is not essential reading. But if you do want to read a non-Marxist perspective on why the descendants of the serfs (who after all are most of our ancestors) progressively lost interest in the enchantment of the natural world Tess is certainly a good choice. Highly recommended.
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