Tess of the D'Urbervilles
Ratings119
Average rating3.7
An intimate portrait of a woman, one of literature's most admirable and tragic heroines...Tess Durbeyfield knows what it is to work hard and expect little. But her life is about to veer from the path trod by her mother and grandmother. When her ne'er-do-well father learns that his family is the last of a long noble line, the d'Urbervilles, he sends Tess on a journey to meet her supposed kin—a journey that will see her victimized by lust, poverty, and hypocrisy. Shaped by an acute sense of social injustice and by a vision of human fate cosmic in scope, her story is a singular blending of harsh realism and poignant beauty. Thomas Hardy created in Tess not a standard Victorian heroine but a woman whose intense vitality shines against the bleak backdrop of a dying way of life. The novel shocked contemporary readers with its honesty and remains a timeless commentary on the human condition.
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such an infuriating book. It's a book about men just treating this poor woman so badly and she is just a shell of herself by the end of it.
I want to actually fight every single man in this book. The whole time i felt like screaming “LEAVE TESS ALONE” and yet men keep coming back to abuse her even after they say “i never want to see you again tess”
Tess just never caught a break and i wanted to give her a hug the whole time.
It would be a 3 star read but the ending gave me a sour taste in my mouth.. ruined the whole story.
Great book, although a bit long-winded. I love the way that Hardy writes, descriptive without ever losing my interest. I finally now realize why “Tess” is referred to so often in my favorite book, “A Prayer for Owen Meany”. Also was surprised at how many biblical and theological references there were in the book - and how many that I understood given that I've read 75% of the Bible over the past year
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