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Tess of the d'Urbervilles (Bantam Classics)
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Manufacturer: Bantam Classics
Author: Thomas Hardy
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Our Price: $4.95
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Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Bantam Classics
Author: Thomas Hardy
Publisher: Bantam Classics
Average Customer Rating:
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Tess of the d'Urbervilles (Bantam Classics) Description
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.8
EAN: 9780553211689
ISBN: 0553211684
Label: Bantam Classics
Manufacturer: Bantam Classics
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 480
Publication Date: 1984-05-01
Publisher: Bantam Classics
Product Release Date: 1984-05-01
Studio: Bantam Classics
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.8
EAN: 9780553211689
ISBN: 0553211684
Label: Bantam Classics
Manufacturer: Bantam Classics
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 480
Publication Date: 1984-05-01
Publisher: Bantam Classics
Product Release Date: 1984-05-01
Studio: Bantam Classics
Editorial Review of Tess of the d'Urbervilles (Bantam Classics)
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.
Customer Reviews of Tess of the d'Urbervilles (Bantam Classics)
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: The landscape of life, contingent on the tiller of its soil, changes its hue.
Review: One favorable evening, Tess in her white garb attends May-Day dance in sleepy town of Marllott. A passerby not used to sophistication will incline to notice her. It is not the extravagance, nay the ostentatiousness of the girl's beauty, but the softness in spirit and demeanor conspicuous on her big, beautiful eyes that sets her apart. The same passerby endowed with experience will not pinpoint Tess among the young, comely girls as someone prone to vicissitude of tragedies. Unfortunately, this is not the case.
Tess Durbeyfield later known in the novel as Tess d'Urberville is the hapless victim if not the heroine of this tragic tale. Born from poor parents, she is whisk away to work for the rich d'Urberville family. There she meets Alec, the handsome scion of d'Urbervilles clan. His incessant seduction of the young maiden results in violation of her rights. Forlorn, she returns home to the embarrassment of her parents and her neighbors. Stripped of clear prospect in life, she travels miles and miles away to be a milkmaid. While in the vast dairy field of Thalbothay, Tess falls madly in love with Angel Clare, the fledgling agriculturist of noble descent, convinced to make the newcomer his wife. Thus the journey that leads Tess from one farm to another is side by side with her lamentations over the two Englishmen and becomes her heart's landscape that stretches beyond endurance.
Hardy, an architect by tuition, molds his male characters in an anvil of insensitivity. Their frozen hearts incapable of thawing by burning tears of a woman's pleading. As to his female character like Tess, Hardy constructs her similar to obelisk with solid foundation of faith that gradually narrows at the peak.
Unsurprisingly, Victorian society scorned Hardy when this novel came out in 1891. The way he chose to describe Tess and her violation were less subtle in comparison to Eliot's writings. At present society however, Thomas Hardy is as impeccable as the clock ticking on the wall. He is in command of his story as if time is in command of denizens elsewhere. Under no circumstance he pauses to please his readers. He continues and takes them where nothing exists but the certainty of time.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Trapped in Victorian England
Review: Tess Durbeyfield never really has a chance. Her father is a poor alcoholic and her mother is a slightly feeble-minded optimist. Tess has six younger siblings, and they are just barely scratching out a living in Victorian England. When her father hears that he is actually descended from a noble family, the D'Urbervilles, his heart swells with pride. When he and his wife find out that there is a rich family sharing their ancestral name living nearby, a plan is formed.
Tess, who is seventeen, will be sent to this other branch of their family, to claim kin. They will take her in, clean her up, and marry her off to a high-class gentleman who will be able to provide for Tess and the rest of the family. Off Tess goes to meet the other branch of her family. Little does she know that these D'Urbervilles are actually a recently rich blind old mother and her son by the name of Stokes, who have plucked D'Urberville out of an old book to adopt as their own, as it sounds classier than their real name.
Tess' connection to their family is never made clear to the old blind woman. Instead, her son Alec takes Tess in, gives her a job, and takes care of her day-to-day routine in his mother's name. He also makes romantic proposals to her, but she always turns him down. One late evening chance finds them alone together in the countryside, and Alec rapes her.
Tess goes back home, without the rich husband her parents expected, without any advancement in the world, and without her maidenhood or her dignity. Slowly she begins to piece her life back together. Three years later finds her at work as a milkmaid on a dairy farm. She catches the eye, then the heart, of a man there learning the trade. Angel Clare is the son of a minister, who quickly becomes determined to win over Tess. But will her past continue to haunt her?
I simply couldn't help myself from viewing this story through the lens of my own life and time, which made me so angry and frustrated with Tess. She allowed herself to be manipulated by everyone, from her parents who wanted her to marry rich in order to help their situation, to Alec and Angel, who each used her as they wished and discarded her when convenient. Never did Tess question her own fault in her situation; she simply accepted that everyone had the right to treat her like they did because of her rape as a teenager. It was horrifying for me to read her begging Angel for some tiny morsel of affection or forgiveness. Although I finished the book, Tess had lost my loyalty far from the end. She simply wasn't worth rooting for.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Extraordinary
Review: I had read Thomas Hardy's Far From the Madding Crowd many many years ago for school and it left me cold. I was young. Hardy was wordy. And flashing swords wielded by a soldier in a scarlet tunic hardly left me breathless as it was supposed to have done when the book was published.
So these many years later I decided to give Hardy another chance with Tess and I was not disappointed.
Dull and boring prose has become joyous and unexpected. Staid characters colourful. And plodding plot amazingly poignant. But it has nothing I am sure with Tess as opposed to Madding but rather the distance my life has travelled since reading Madding.
Tess is wonderful book with a contemporary message about actions, decisions, and reputation. He paints Tess in a sympathetic light but leaves room for us to doubt that this is entirely the world acting upon her. It may even be read as a cautionary tale of chosing duty over our own happiness, or even others importunity over our own intuition.
It was contemplative for these many years later I could feel Tess's anger and frustration and finally acceptance of a life she did not want while ever so briefly tasting the life she knew she deserved.
I have to say the ending surprised and disappointed me. Rather like a Kafka novel it seems that Hardy just wanted to wind things up rather than finish them. In fact it rather seems to me that he may have tried different endings and for some particular reason preferred this one over the rest. Or maybe because I believe that like Tess she deserved a break I was disappointed when it was short and fleeting. If I read his afterword correctly it seems that I was not alone in my sentiments about his ending as he defends his sympathies and his predilections in it.
It is obvious that my first experience with Hardy came at an age when not enough water had flowed under my bridge. Thankfully I gave him another try.
Tess is simply brilliant.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Profound, moving
Review: But if you get the Wordsworth Classics edition, don't read the introduction until you finish! I'm going to make this standard practice for all classics from now on. I was hoping for some background on Hardy but before I even realized what had happened I'd read a summary of the entire story in one paragraph, plot twists and all. And it really did ruin the climactic last couple chapters for me. I hate it when editors / publishers assume that if a novel is famous and critically acclaimed then the reader must already be familiar with the story. Completely false: In this day and age reading for pleasure isn't as widespread as it used to be and the old classics are fading into the distance. The story in "Tess of the D'Urbervilles" is certainly not common knowledge anymore, so when you discover a gem like this I beg you not to ruin it for yourself by reading the canned introduction.
Still a fabulous read, certainly. The story centers on the simple, sincere, hard-working farmgirl Tess Durbeyfield who is fated to stumble into a few serious and unfortunate challenges over the couple years that the novel spans. Hardy spins a truly magnificently written and plotted tale in narrating poor Tess's adventures & mishaps.
I read another Hardy classic, Far From the Madding Crowd, several years ago and enjoyed it immensely. For the life of me I can't remember any of the story in that novel except that the central character was rather strange, but a few pages of "Tess of the D'Urbervilles" instantly resurrected my memories of Hardy's unmatched power of narration. He truly brings every scene and character to full animation and vitality, does the poignant scenes full justice, and even handles humorous situations with aplomb.
Easily five stars, one of the best classics I've ever read. Just don't read the introduction!
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Emotionally Difficult to Read, but Hardy's Beautiful Prose Carries You Along
Review: I went into "Tess of the D'urbervilles" with full knowledge of the harsh fate waiting for Tess, but that knowledge still could not prepare me for how harrowing and painful that journey was for her, and the reader. The character of Tess is so moral, innocent, kind, and unselfish against the society that is anything but, that Hardy's message of fate and social hypocrisy reveals itself full force in the novel. Tess has a love for life and an optimism that takes the harshest and cruelest society to beat down, and that is heartbreaking to behold.
I thought this was going to be a stuffy English novel, despite the fact I quite enjoy (most) Victorian novels I read. However, I discovered that Hardy's prose flows well and is even beautifully poetic. Some of the best lines come from Tess's mouth, showing that she is not only morally upright, but also smart and incredibly perceptive.
Hardy has a great way with words; romantic scenes are intensely passionate, emotional letters drip with feeling, and narrations delve into the feelings and thoughts of the characters so that the reader can understand, pity, empathize and sympathize with them. Most surprising perhaps is Hardy's understanding of the female mind; I think he has developed Tess into a believable and realistic heroine, and he has many interesting things to say about the differences of the genders, especially during that time period.
"Tess of the D'urbervilles" is a gorgeous yet heart-breaking novel. Not only does it entertain with its poetic prose and social themes, the novel also opens one's mind to the hypocrisy of the times; hypocrisies that even now may still appear in the thoughts and actions of people in this "modern" society.
Review Summary: The landscape of life, contingent on the tiller of its soil, changes its hue.
Review: One favorable evening, Tess in her white garb attends May-Day dance in sleepy town of Marllott. A passerby not used to sophistication will incline to notice her. It is not the extravagance, nay the ostentatiousness of the girl's beauty, but the softness in spirit and demeanor conspicuous on her big, beautiful eyes that sets her apart. The same passerby endowed with experience will not pinpoint Tess among the young, comely girls as someone prone to vicissitude of tragedies. Unfortunately, this is not the case.
Tess Durbeyfield later known in the novel as Tess d'Urberville is the hapless victim if not the heroine of this tragic tale. Born from poor parents, she is whisk away to work for the rich d'Urberville family. There she meets Alec, the handsome scion of d'Urbervilles clan. His incessant seduction of the young maiden results in violation of her rights. Forlorn, she returns home to the embarrassment of her parents and her neighbors. Stripped of clear prospect in life, she travels miles and miles away to be a milkmaid. While in the vast dairy field of Thalbothay, Tess falls madly in love with Angel Clare, the fledgling agriculturist of noble descent, convinced to make the newcomer his wife. Thus the journey that leads Tess from one farm to another is side by side with her lamentations over the two Englishmen and becomes her heart's landscape that stretches beyond endurance.
Hardy, an architect by tuition, molds his male characters in an anvil of insensitivity. Their frozen hearts incapable of thawing by burning tears of a woman's pleading. As to his female character like Tess, Hardy constructs her similar to obelisk with solid foundation of faith that gradually narrows at the peak.
Unsurprisingly, Victorian society scorned Hardy when this novel came out in 1891. The way he chose to describe Tess and her violation were less subtle in comparison to Eliot's writings. At present society however, Thomas Hardy is as impeccable as the clock ticking on the wall. He is in command of his story as if time is in command of denizens elsewhere. Under no circumstance he pauses to please his readers. He continues and takes them where nothing exists but the certainty of time.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Trapped in Victorian England
Review: Tess Durbeyfield never really has a chance. Her father is a poor alcoholic and her mother is a slightly feeble-minded optimist. Tess has six younger siblings, and they are just barely scratching out a living in Victorian England. When her father hears that he is actually descended from a noble family, the D'Urbervilles, his heart swells with pride. When he and his wife find out that there is a rich family sharing their ancestral name living nearby, a plan is formed.
Tess, who is seventeen, will be sent to this other branch of their family, to claim kin. They will take her in, clean her up, and marry her off to a high-class gentleman who will be able to provide for Tess and the rest of the family. Off Tess goes to meet the other branch of her family. Little does she know that these D'Urbervilles are actually a recently rich blind old mother and her son by the name of Stokes, who have plucked D'Urberville out of an old book to adopt as their own, as it sounds classier than their real name.
Tess' connection to their family is never made clear to the old blind woman. Instead, her son Alec takes Tess in, gives her a job, and takes care of her day-to-day routine in his mother's name. He also makes romantic proposals to her, but she always turns him down. One late evening chance finds them alone together in the countryside, and Alec rapes her.
Tess goes back home, without the rich husband her parents expected, without any advancement in the world, and without her maidenhood or her dignity. Slowly she begins to piece her life back together. Three years later finds her at work as a milkmaid on a dairy farm. She catches the eye, then the heart, of a man there learning the trade. Angel Clare is the son of a minister, who quickly becomes determined to win over Tess. But will her past continue to haunt her?
I simply couldn't help myself from viewing this story through the lens of my own life and time, which made me so angry and frustrated with Tess. She allowed herself to be manipulated by everyone, from her parents who wanted her to marry rich in order to help their situation, to Alec and Angel, who each used her as they wished and discarded her when convenient. Never did Tess question her own fault in her situation; she simply accepted that everyone had the right to treat her like they did because of her rape as a teenager. It was horrifying for me to read her begging Angel for some tiny morsel of affection or forgiveness. Although I finished the book, Tess had lost my loyalty far from the end. She simply wasn't worth rooting for.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Extraordinary
Review: I had read Thomas Hardy's Far From the Madding Crowd many many years ago for school and it left me cold. I was young. Hardy was wordy. And flashing swords wielded by a soldier in a scarlet tunic hardly left me breathless as it was supposed to have done when the book was published.
So these many years later I decided to give Hardy another chance with Tess and I was not disappointed.
Dull and boring prose has become joyous and unexpected. Staid characters colourful. And plodding plot amazingly poignant. But it has nothing I am sure with Tess as opposed to Madding but rather the distance my life has travelled since reading Madding.
Tess is wonderful book with a contemporary message about actions, decisions, and reputation. He paints Tess in a sympathetic light but leaves room for us to doubt that this is entirely the world acting upon her. It may even be read as a cautionary tale of chosing duty over our own happiness, or even others importunity over our own intuition.
It was contemplative for these many years later I could feel Tess's anger and frustration and finally acceptance of a life she did not want while ever so briefly tasting the life she knew she deserved.
I have to say the ending surprised and disappointed me. Rather like a Kafka novel it seems that Hardy just wanted to wind things up rather than finish them. In fact it rather seems to me that he may have tried different endings and for some particular reason preferred this one over the rest. Or maybe because I believe that like Tess she deserved a break I was disappointed when it was short and fleeting. If I read his afterword correctly it seems that I was not alone in my sentiments about his ending as he defends his sympathies and his predilections in it.
It is obvious that my first experience with Hardy came at an age when not enough water had flowed under my bridge. Thankfully I gave him another try.
Tess is simply brilliant.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Profound, moving
Review: But if you get the Wordsworth Classics edition, don't read the introduction until you finish! I'm going to make this standard practice for all classics from now on. I was hoping for some background on Hardy but before I even realized what had happened I'd read a summary of the entire story in one paragraph, plot twists and all. And it really did ruin the climactic last couple chapters for me. I hate it when editors / publishers assume that if a novel is famous and critically acclaimed then the reader must already be familiar with the story. Completely false: In this day and age reading for pleasure isn't as widespread as it used to be and the old classics are fading into the distance. The story in "Tess of the D'Urbervilles" is certainly not common knowledge anymore, so when you discover a gem like this I beg you not to ruin it for yourself by reading the canned introduction.
Still a fabulous read, certainly. The story centers on the simple, sincere, hard-working farmgirl Tess Durbeyfield who is fated to stumble into a few serious and unfortunate challenges over the couple years that the novel spans. Hardy spins a truly magnificently written and plotted tale in narrating poor Tess's adventures & mishaps.
I read another Hardy classic, Far From the Madding Crowd, several years ago and enjoyed it immensely. For the life of me I can't remember any of the story in that novel except that the central character was rather strange, but a few pages of "Tess of the D'Urbervilles" instantly resurrected my memories of Hardy's unmatched power of narration. He truly brings every scene and character to full animation and vitality, does the poignant scenes full justice, and even handles humorous situations with aplomb.
Easily five stars, one of the best classics I've ever read. Just don't read the introduction!
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Emotionally Difficult to Read, but Hardy's Beautiful Prose Carries You Along
Review: I went into "Tess of the D'urbervilles" with full knowledge of the harsh fate waiting for Tess, but that knowledge still could not prepare me for how harrowing and painful that journey was for her, and the reader. The character of Tess is so moral, innocent, kind, and unselfish against the society that is anything but, that Hardy's message of fate and social hypocrisy reveals itself full force in the novel. Tess has a love for life and an optimism that takes the harshest and cruelest society to beat down, and that is heartbreaking to behold.
I thought this was going to be a stuffy English novel, despite the fact I quite enjoy (most) Victorian novels I read. However, I discovered that Hardy's prose flows well and is even beautifully poetic. Some of the best lines come from Tess's mouth, showing that she is not only morally upright, but also smart and incredibly perceptive.
Hardy has a great way with words; romantic scenes are intensely passionate, emotional letters drip with feeling, and narrations delve into the feelings and thoughts of the characters so that the reader can understand, pity, empathize and sympathize with them. Most surprising perhaps is Hardy's understanding of the female mind; I think he has developed Tess into a believable and realistic heroine, and he has many interesting things to say about the differences of the genders, especially during that time period.
"Tess of the D'urbervilles" is a gorgeous yet heart-breaking novel. Not only does it entertain with its poetic prose and social themes, the novel also opens one's mind to the hypocrisy of the times; hypocrisies that even now may still appear in the thoughts and actions of people in this "modern" society.