num_pages: 492
description: Young Tess Durbeyfield attempts to restore her family's fortunes by claiming their connection with the aristocratic d'Urbervilles. But Alec d'Urberville is a rich wastrel who seduces her and makes her life miserable. When Tess meets Angel Clare, she is offered true love and happiness, buther past catches up with her and she faces an agonizing moral choice.Hardy's indictment of society's double standards, and his depiction of Tess as "a pure woman," caused controversy in his day and has held the imagination of readers ever since. Hardy thought it his finest novel, and Tess the most deeply felt character he ever created. This unique critical textis taken from the authoritative Clarendon edition, which is based on the manuscript collated with all Hardy's subsequent revisions.
language: English
title: Tess of the d'Urbervilles
titlecomplete: Tess of the d'Urbervilles
characters: Alec D'Urberville, Angel Clare, Tess Durbeyfield
genres: Literature, British Literature, Classics, Novels, Classic Literature, Victorian, 19th Century, Historical Fiction, Fiction, Romance
ratings_count: 276767
places: United Kingdom, Dorset, England
publisher: Oxford University Press