Tess of the D'Urbervilles
Ratings94
Average rating3.7
15
Ratings94
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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Reviews with the most likes.
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.
I struggled with the beginning of this book especially with how forceful and persistant Alec is with Tess. His repetitive gaslighting of her was hard to read at times.
I loved the middle of this book. Where she overcomes - to a point - what has happened to her and tries to move on and live her life. Her romance with Angel - while again seemingly forced on behalf of Angel - was lovelier to read than Alec???s determined ownership of Tess.
The ending? I was not expecting that at all. Although - in hindsight - it was almost inevitable. With the mental abuse Alec puts her through Tess was bound to snap eventually. The ending moved me to tears and the final paragraph will stay with me for a long time.
