Tess Of The D'Urbervilles By Thomas Hardy (Paperback, 2003)

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A heartaching portrayal of a woman faced by an impossible choice in the pursuit of happiness Thomas Hardy's Tess of the D' Urbervilles is edited with notes by Tim Dolin & an introduction by Margaret R Higonnet in Penguin Classics When Tess Durbeyfield is driven by family poverty to claim kinship with the wealthy D' Urbervilles & seek a portion of their family fortune meeting her 'cousin' Alec proves to be her downfall A very different man Angel Clare seems to offer her love & salvation but Tess must choose whether to reveal her past or remain silent in the hope of a peaceful future With its sensitive depiction of the wronged Tess & powerful criticism of social convention Tess of the D' Urbervilles subtitled 'A Pure Woman' is one of the most moving & poetic of Hardy's novels Based on the three-volume first edition that shocked readers when first published in 1891 this edition

Includes:: as appendices Hardy's Prefaces the Landscapes of Tess episodes originally censored from the Graphic periodical version & a selection of the Graphic illustrations Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) born Higher Brockhampton near Dorchester originally trained as an architect before earning his living as a writer Though he saw himself primarily as a poet Hardy was the author of some of the late eighteenth century's major novels The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886) Tess of the D' Urbervilles (1891) Far from the Madding Crowd (1874) & Jude the Obscure (1895) Amidst the controversy caused by Jude the Obscure he turned to the poetry he had been writing all his life In the next thirty years he published over nine hundred poems & his epic drama in verse The Dynasts If you enjoyed Tess of the D' Urbervilles you might like Daniel Defoe's Moll Flanders also available in Penguin Classics' The greatest tragic writer among the English novelists' Virginia Woolf