My life looks as if it had been wasted for want of chances! When I see what you know, what you have read, & seen, & thought, I feel what a nothing I am! Challenging the hypocrisy & social conventions of the rural Victorian world, Tess Of The D' Urbervilles follows the story of Tess Durbeyfield as she attempts to escape the poverty of her background, seeking wealth by claiming connection with the aristocratic D' Urberville family. It is through Tess's relationships with two very different men that Hardy tells the story of his tragic heroine, & exposes the double standards of the world that she inhabits with searing pathos & heart-rending sentiment.