Overview

Tess of the d'Urbervilles, novel by Thomas Hardy, first published serially in bowdlerized form in Graphic (July-December 1891) and in full in book form (three volumes) the same year. It was subtitled A Faithfully Presented Pure Woman because Hardy felt her heroine was a virtuous victim of a rigid Victorian moral code. Now considered Hardy's masterpiece, it departed from conventional Victorian fiction in its focus on the rural lower class and in its outspoken treatment of sexuality and religion.The novel is set in impoverished, rural Wessex during the Great Depression of 1873. Tess is the eldest daughter of John and Joan Durbeyfield, uneducated rural peasants. One day, Parson Tringham informs John that he has noble blood. Tringham has discovered that Durbeyfield is a corruption of d'Urberville , the surname of a noble Norman family that is now extinct. The news goes to John's head. Tess's parents pressure her to go to the big house in the region where the rich dUrbervilles live, to present herself as her relative and thus obtain benefits from them. Her intentions are for her son Alex to take her in marriage. Tess refuses to do what her parents want.

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