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).