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Copy/paste the text below into your blog. <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32261.Tess_of_the_D_Urbervilles?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=blog_review" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img alt="Tess of the D'Urbervilles" border="0" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/photo.goodreads.com/books/1168379379m/32261.jpg" /></a> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32261.Tess_of_the_D_Urbervilles?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">Tess of the D'Urbervilles</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/15905.Thomas_Hardy">Thomas Hardy</a><br/><br/> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/13669270?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review"><h3>My review</h3></a> rating: 3 of 5 stars<br/>My "blurb": <br/> <br/>A heartbreakingly real portrait of human reactions <br/> <br/> <br/>An essay I wrote for English- It's not that great and pretty short. <br/> Thomas Hardy’s novel, Tess of the D’Urbervilles, is a tale of human nature. The story explores the manner in which people respond to trials. It revolves around the life of Tess Durbeyfield, an uncommonly pretty crofter’s daughter. When she is sixteen, Tess goes to work for her supposed relative to earn money for her family. While she is living there her “cousin”, Alec Stoke-d’Urberville, takes advantage of her- an act that tremendously influences the remainder of both their lives. Believing herself to be tainted and unworthy, Tess vows to never marry and returns home to give birth to her son, Sorrow, who dies in infancy. Following the death of Sorrow, Tess goes to work at a dairy farm where she meets and falls in love with Angel Clare, the heretic son of a clergyman. Angel professes to love Tess as well and begs her to marry him. Tess eventually consents, despite her vow, after Angel’s repeated assurances of the constancy of his affection. On their wedding night, Angel admits to having an affair while he lived in London. Tess then confesses her history with Alec. Tess readily forgives Angel for his indiscretion, but Angel is not so magnanimous. Appalled by her revelation, Angel accuses Tess of deceiving him and says he cannot bear to live with her. Shortly after this, he gives Tess some money and departs for Brazil. <br/> <br/>Both Alec and Angel desire Tess for her physical beauty and appearance rather than her nobleness of character. Alec wanted to own her, and Angel wanted her only to fill the role of his wife as he thought she ought to be. Lust is cruel. It thinks wholly of the body and nothing of its lasting effects on the soul attached to it. Alec’s lust is completely selfish. His faith in God is not greatly different. It, too, is intense and fleeting, vanishing as soon as it fails to make him feel the way he wants. Alec treated Tess abominably, using her with no regard for the consequences of his actions, but he did not know the extent of his damage. He was thoughtless, not deliberately cruel. Angel professed to love Tess, but he never really knew her. He was in love with the illusion of Tess he created, a love that he recanted the moment he saw she was not the goddess of purity and beauty he had believed her to be. Unlike Tess’s love for him, Angel’s love was indeed fragile and when tested wore out immediately. <br/> <br/><br/><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/829048?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">View all my reviews.</a>