New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1892-02-14
&" TESS. -
Mr.. HARDY'S STRONG NOVEL

FMTmFTLLY PR R rE' nv Thd IN, wilma" Iary
Illustrated 12mO. PIP. f2l. Harper Brothers
This is not only by far The best work Mr.. Hardy
has done; il is one OF the strongest novels that
have appeared for a long time Like Mrs Wards
/" David Gricve," it is permeatcd by that modern
spirit which tends TO such conclusions on the prob
lens of life lead minds Of the second order ~
hopeless pcssimism. For it is study OF very
keen and searching kind in those battling questions
the insolubity Of which upon any HYPOTHESIS.
mankind have been hitherto able 10 invent is At the
basis Of agnosticism; and il is terribly realistic
presentation Of some Of the apparently wanton and
irremediabe crueltes and wrongs which are some
times heaped upon the best and nobcsi crushing
their aspirations, bearing them down not merely
to sorrow and humiliation but 10 shame and re-
proach, making them scapegoats for the sins of
others upon whom punishment falls, and defeat
ing every effort Of the victims TO win q taste OF
happiness or peace The story Of poor Tess of the
D'Urbcrvics hos however more significance than
this. Again, as in Mrs Wards novel, The gfcat
question Of heredity is introduced. The heroine
Is one Of the last descendants of family once
rich, prosperous and influential, but which has
declined until it has become virtually extinct
until its few remaining scions have sunk into in
diligence and obscurty, and the places that knew
it know il no more. Some lingering strain of the
superior mental development which characterizes
the D'Urbcrvilles when thcy flourislsng race
has descended upon Tess. village girl by birth and
training. with no other educational opportunities
than the local grammar school afforded her in
tcligent and mental alcrtness set her apart from
tn, dull and bovine stoldity Of the Wessex peas
ants among whom she lives Race and blood
speak in her Enthusiastically, and both are doubt
less concerned in the production of those events
in her life which TO make it martyrlom
But the wonder Of all il that ont Of plot which
coarscr and less subtle intellect might have
rejected fit only for a chapter in the Ncwgatc
Calendar, Mr.. Hardy has constructed tale which
moves the reader alike by It's pathss its passion and
it's purity. more tragic or powerfully moving
story than that Of Tess lives not in fiction and the
pity of it is heightened by the exquisite pastoral
| scenes in which it is mainly set. Nothing more
beautiful has been written, nothing more true ts
Nature than the description Of life at the dairy
| farm where Angel Clare and Tess come together.
where they learn 10 love one another where amid
occupations SO peaceful and surroundings 80 idylic
| the lines are drawn upon which the tragedy is TO
be enacted
| The book is full Of suggestion on questions
which have never agitated mems minds more
| than al the present time. The subtefy OF this
derivation OF events is another striking character
istic OF II, and may be fifty instanccd by the
undoing OF D'urbervilles conversion to religion
through Tess citation to him of Angels sccptical
arguments. Here the final ruin Of the woman is
indirectly wrought by the strength Of her own
love for and pride in, the husband who neglccts
her. Such things really happen in life, but novel
lists rule avoid using them lest they should he
condemned as far.fetched' or unreal Such
careers that If Tess do but they are sell