From the Bookshelf of Works of Thomas Hardy…

Tess of the D'Urbervilles

Thomas Hardy

Start date: September 1, 2022

Finish date: November 30, 2022

Discussion: Tess of the d'Urbervilles

Discussion leader: Bionic Jean

Why we're reading this: Our first group read of a novel after the relaunch.
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Tess of the d'Urbervilles

Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Phase the Fourth: Chapter 25 - 34
By Bionic Jean , Moderator · 155 posts · 45 views

last updated Oct 09, 2023 12:44PM

Tess of the d’Urbervilles - Phase the Seventh: Chapter 53 - 59, and post-read discussion
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last updated Oct 06, 2023 02:36PM

What Members Thought

Dec 28, 2012 Rowena rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, favourite-authors, favorites, bookclub-reads, banned-book-challenges

If I'd only known how much I would enjoy this book, I wouldn't have let it sit on my shelf for 5 long years!

I adore classics but it is hard for me to read a lot of them without feeling some indignation of the injustices dealt to women. Hardy presents us with Tess, a young woman who really doesn't have much control over her life. She is forced to sacrifice herself time and again for her family, including her child-like parents. Poor Tess. My heart really ached for her. Having to go through all s ...more

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Feb 13, 2008 Werner rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: books-i-own, classics

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Note, April 21, 2024: I've just revised this review, mostly to reflect a substantive change in my understanding of Hardy's attitude here, based on a reread of another of his novels, Far from the Madding Crowd Hopefully, the changes won't compel anyone who's previously "liked" the review to unlike it!

My rating for this novel is based on Hardy's technical artistry, and on the power of the emotional reaction that the story evokes. I'd have given it only 3 stars if I were basing the rating strictly Note, April 21, 2024: I've just revised this review, mostly to reflect a substantive change in my understanding of Hardy's attitude here, based on a reread of another of his novels, Far from the Madding Crowd Hopefully, the changes won't compel anyone who's previously "liked" the review to unlike it!

My rating for this novel is based on Hardy's technical artistry, and on the power of the emotional reaction that the story evokes. I'd have given it only 3 stars if I were basing the rating strictly on my own personal enjoyment of the book, but that's only because I don't really enjoy heart-tearing tragedy, which this is (happy endings don't abound in Hardy's Wessex). Tess is the sort of heroine I can readily like and respect, but that makes her ultimate fate all the more gut-wrenching.

Like Jude the Obscure, this novel offended Victorian "propriety," in this case by its obvious criticism of the conventional gender-based double standard for sexual sins (Angel's reaction to Tess' following of his example in sharing a wedding-night confession made me want to reach into the pages and shake some sense into him!), and by its contention that, as the subtitle "The Story of a Pure Woman" says, a woman who's borne an out-of-wedlock child --in Tess' case, as a result of what we'd call "acquaintance rape"-- can nonetheless be a pure and decent person. For me (and I think for most readers), these points aren't problematic. Neither am I, and probably most other readers, inclined to shed any tears over Alec's stabbing; while I recognize that he's a human being, my sympathies aren't very engaged on behalf of a rapist and total jerk. (I admit that that's a less compassionate reaction than I should have, but I'm being honest.) Although I've never been a major fan of the insanity defense in criminal law, since I think it's often abused, I think a claim of temporary insanity on Tess' part would have been completely justified. For me, the more problematic element of the story is theological. Hardy's mirroring of his own religious skepticism in Tess and Angel, and his portrayal of Christian conversion as completely ineffectual to bring about any genuine moral transformation in Alec, is obviously uncongenial to me as a Christian reader. So, too, is Hardy's general attitude of existential pessimism.

At the novel's end, Hardy ascribes Tess' fate to the "sport" of "the President of the Immortals," a phrase I originally assumed to denote God. Actually, it's one quoted, as Hardy states there, from Aeschylus. Presumably it refers to Zeus in the original; but here, I now think it's more accurate to conclude that in using the round-about reference, Hardy as an agnostic distances his meaning from a straight-out reference to God as such. Rather, it seems to be simply a kind of poetic (and the author was primarily a poet) personification of an impersonal chance or "fate." (So I would no longer see any vestigial influence of Calvinism from Hardy's youthful religious milieu here.) That's not to deny that the storyline here also shows the role of lousy attitudes and behavior (including, sometimes, her own bad decisions) on the part of more than one character in Tess' tragedy, which have consequences both for them and for others, nor that Hardy sees these as culpable. But I now think it's incontrovertible that Hardy sees chance (and more often than not malign chance) as setting up a lot of the circumstances within which his characters make their choices for good or bad. To my mind, that's not a view which accurately explains the real way in which the universe operates.

But those criticisms don't diminish the human interest of the tale, the force of its moral messages, or the vividness of the characters. This is a very real story about very human characters, and well worth a read --and not just for historical interest in Victorian fiction. But it's probably best read with a tissue box handy, especially if you're inclined to be emotional! ...more

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Jul 02, 2009 Captain Sir Roddy, R.N. (Ret.) rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: historical-fiction, british-literature, read-in-2010, everymans-library-editions, victorian-literature, author-thomas-hardy, favorites, my-western-canon, oxford-worlds-classics-paperback

I have almost finished reading much of the major fiction of Thomas Hardy this summer. I just completed Tess of the d'Urbervilles, and only have Jude the Obscure left to read. All I can say is that this has been one of the most intense novels that I believe that I've ever read. This novel rivals the literary and emotional experiences I have had with Hardy's The Return of the Native, Charlotte Bronte's Villette, Dickens's Our Mutual Friend, and Tolstoy's masterpiece, Anna Karenina. In my opinion, ...more

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May 27, 2011 Sara rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: classics

I feel no need to rehash the plot of Tess or sing the praises of Hardy, although I easily could. I had forgotten how bleak Tess of the D'Urbervilles was and how trapped Tess herself is by the unfair standards women are held to in this society ruled by men. That Hardy was brave enough to tackle this subject is courage in itself.

I do not love Tess in the same way that I loved Jude the Obscure or The Mayor of Casterbridge, which is the only reason she doesn't get five-stars from me. If you have nev ...more

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Oct 16, 2011 Antoinette rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: pre-1900

Other than sometimes Mr Hardy gets too descriptive, this book was excellent. Poor Tess, can nothing go right for her? From the minute her father got grandiose ideas about his ancestry,it was a downward spiral for Tess. I have nothing but admiration for Tess. Hardy displays her as a strong woman, who no matter what plods ahead. Heartbreaking. Hardy does display the period well. Highly recommend this book. It takes a bit more effort to read but well worth it!!

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Jan 30, 2016 Tom rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, fiction, england, four-stars, 2016-bingo, 2016, 2016-tmg-bingo, thomas-hardy

In looking up the book on Google, I found that the full title of the book is Tess of the d'Urbervilles: A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented. Parson Tringham, after looking over John Durbeyfield (a poor haggler) tells him he is descended from the ancient d'Urberville family which came to England with William the Conqueror. Suitably impressed with his new pedigree, he decides to send his eldest daughter Tess to make acquaintance with the local branch of d'Urbervilles in the hopes of gaining its fina ...more

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Aug 23, 2011 Kelly-Louise rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I'm on a Thomas Hardy high right now! I finished this book the other night, and yesterday Roger and I went and saw the movie of Far from the Madding Crowd, which was so, so good! But fear not, I will not allow myself to get carried away into gushing, since this review is about Tess of the d'Urbervilles, and not Far from the Madding Crowd (which is my absolute favorite Hardy novel).

While not my favorite, Tess is a great and very worthwhile read. It is set amongst the laborers (or, rather, laboure I'm on a Thomas Hardy high right now! I finished this book the other night, and yesterday Roger and I went and saw the movie of Far from the Madding Crowd, which was so, so good! But fear not, I will not allow myself to get carried away into gushing, since this review is about Tess of the d'Urbervilles, and not Far from the Madding Crowd (which is my absolute favorite Hardy novel).

While not my favorite, Tess is a great and very worthwhile read. It is set amongst the laborers (or, rather, labourers) of late 19th century rural England. It features beautiful writing, of course, interesting characters, deep themes, with fate seemingly in charge, leading our hapless characters to tragedy. Yet I wouldn't say it's completely hopeless at the end. It's just quintessential Hardy.

A few more of my thoughts, which contain spoilers:
(view spoiler)[
One of the themes he explores is the sexual double standard of the time: a woman could be raped (at worst) or taken advantage of by a man of higher station (at best -- Hardy is somewhat ambiguous but it seems he is hinting that it's the latter with Tess) and she carries a stain and her life is ruined. Meanwhile the man can commit fornication and it's just him sowing his wild oats, and he gets a slap on the back and "there's a good chap." I love that Hardy was addressing this head on, but it is painful that we have to watch Tess suffer so much in order for that point to be made.

Like I mentioned, Fate seems to be another theme -- I haven't studied up on Hardy's life or his beliefs, but he really does like to have his characters' whole destinies hinge on just happenstance events. So for Tess, all the worst planets just happen to align, at just about every point in the story. For example, in the opening scene of the book, Parson Tringham runs into Tess' father. The parson just happens to feel chatty and mentions the Durbeyfields' ancestors to him. He instantly regrets it because he realizes that Tess' father is a buffoon and is taking it in the worst possible way. That one conversation sets all the following events in motion. But even then, Tess could have been saved that very day had Angel noticed her in time to dance with her at the May Day celebration. Instead, he only notices her as he is walking away. If they only could have started their courting before her parents even sent her to Trantridge...but no. Later, Tess puts her confession note to Angel under his door. Of course, he never sees it since it just happens to go under the rug. Him receiving that note could have changed everything. When Tess walks to Emminster, her in-laws just happen to be at church when she knocks on the door. Instead of waiting for them, she decides to walk around by the church. Then she just happens to overhear her brothers-in-law talking, which dissuades her from contacting Angel's parents after all. Again, they could have taken care of her, and it could have changed the whole course of events. Tess' father dies and the family loses their house -- making Tess much more susceptible to falling into Alec's clutches. And on and on. It drives you crazy! It's kind of like Hardy is trying to torture us. But it's interesting at the same time because life (for bad AND for good) can be a bit like that. (hide spoiler)] ...more

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Sep 22, 2016 iosephvs bibliothecarivs rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favourites-of-all-time, favourite-fiction-of-all-time, completed-2016

2022 review for Banned Books Week at my library: A beautifully-composed story of a woman in rural England striving against the unyielding social conventions of her time. As a character, Tess's relentless effort to simply live and love despite very difficult circumstances continues to inspire me.

Tess was censored during the process of publication and banned in several places on both sides of the Atlantic in the years following according to 120 Banned Books: Censorship Histories of World Litera ...more

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Aug 22, 2008 Lundyn rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Great read if you can stand a good tragedy and some terrible misunderstandings. The characters are believable and you really can feel the terrible burdens that are put upon Tess. It is definitely worth it if you are a Hardy fan, I think it is one of his must reads.

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