Book Review: Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy

In my never-ending fascination with the classics, I recently picked up two novels by Thomas Hardy that I somehow missed over the years. (The Return of the Native was the other one.) I decided by coin flip to read Tess first. I liked it enough to ensure that at some point I will eventually read the other one as well. So here goes my official review.

Without giving away the entire plot, Tess Durbyfield is a young woman from a poor working-class family living with her parents and surrounded by younger siblings. When her father hears from a local parson that they may be descended from an “ancient and knightly” family, the D’Urbervilles, he is delighted, despite the knowledge that the family is now extinct. When Tess accidentally causes her family to suffer a financial crisis, the parents hatch a plan to recover by sending her to a wealthy old woman named D’Urberville living in a nearby county.

Here she encounters the novel’s primary villain, Alec D’Urberville.  Spoiler alert (even though it’s revealed on the book’s back cover blurb), he rapes her and she flees to her home where she bears his child.  The baby dies and Tess leaves home to find work at a dairy farm in a neighboring county. Here she meets our hero (maybe) Angel Clare with whom she falls in love. When the details of her past are revealed, they obviously don’t live happily ever after.

I will spare you the details, but at this point the book becomes very depressing! (Yes, her life gets even worse!) Tess embarks on a long series of increasingly more difficult jobs while separated from Angel. Her past returns to haunt her in the reappearance of Alec D’Urberville. At this point, I began to feel as if I were at a movie! I kept wanting to hiss every time the villain showed up, and yell at Tess and Angel in frustration when they couldn’t make a decision, or when they constantly made the wrong one! IMHO, LOL.

By the end, I was still hoping for everyone to come to their senses, but alas, it was not to be. Consider this one a tragedy. Nevertheless, I would recommend the book, at least to the older crowd who appreciates a good classic tale. Honestly though, it is a somewhat difficult read due to the language of the age. (It was first published in 1891.) And for the non-readers (Shame on you!), you can see a wonderful BBC adaptation on Amazon Prime Video starring Gemma Arterton and a young Eddie Redmayne.