I had wanted to read this book for ages. One of my instructors in my university loves him very much, and she recommended me this one (we discussed it over email when I finished it). I had a lot of expectations regarding Tess, and I think it fulfilled them.

Tess is a girl from a very impoverished family, the Durbeyfields. Apparently, the Durbeyfields used to be D’Ubervilles before, but time and poverty had corrupted the last name. When he hears that from a priest, Mr. Durbeyfield, his supposed past goes to his head. And when he learns about a rich D’Uberville family in another town, he decides that the next logical step is to send his eldest daughter to him. Yes, that’s Tess. And yes, shit happens. Her “cousin”

(He’s not really related to her, his family bought the name)

Alec is very attracted to her, and ends up raping her. And getting her pregnant. As the novel is set in Victorian England, more shit is bound to happen.

The baby (called Sorrow, for subtlety’s sake) dies and Tess manages to get him interred in the cemetery of the church, despite the fact that the priest didn’t want to bury him there, because he was illegitimate. Then, she goes to work as a milkmaid, to help sustain her family (given that the plan of marrying her to a rich cousin miserably failed). There, she meets the famous Angel (well, actually they meet early in the book, but they don’t really talk much). He falls for her (she’s pretty and nice) and asks her to marry him. Though she at first is insecure about the whole affair, Tess accepts him.

It would seem that her life could be solved. But no. This is a HARDY NOVEL. And yes, this means that shit keeps happening.

The problem comes when he discovers that she’s not a virgin (see: raped by creepy cousin). He isn’t a virgin either, but he has the freaking gull to call her out on it. Seriously. He’s also very conflicted about her lack of virginity (his doesn’t seem to be a problem at all). Because women having sexual desire are automatically whores, despite the fact that their first experience was, you know, RAPE). Men can do anything apparently, and nobody really cares. Women are whores.

So, Angel leaves and goes to Brazil, leaving Tess on her own. Though he does give her some money, it’s not enough to keep her and help her family, so she needs to look for it somewhere else.

You probably guess what happens now. More shit.

Alec (the creepy cousin) appears again. Tess’ parents are dead and she’s in charge of all her little siblings.

He says he’s been converted, but after a short while he shows that he’s still the little shit he was at the beginning. He offers Tess to be his mistress, so she can sustain her siblings. Being a woman in Victorian English, she doesn’t really have a lot of choices (which makes her really interesting if you’ve read Far from the Madding Crowd and were amazed by Bathsheba Everdene).

Then, Angel returns. He’s very much willing to make up for his shitty treatment of Tess, but now it is she who doesn’t want him back (for obvious reasons). The thing is that it isn’t really so, she does love him still (WHY?). So she kills Alec (good for you, girl) and runs away with Angel (WHY?).

Of course, given her really crappy luck, she is caught and hanged for the murder. The ending is pretty bleak, because we all kind of wished she got free. But not. She dies. This is not fair. Supposedly, part of Hardy’s signature style is how depressive he is. This shows it perfectly.

Other than that, the book is good. It’s very clear that Hardy isn’t condemning Tess. He actually seems to be condemning society as a whole, for failing her. She is a “pure woman” (come on, it’s the novel’s subtitle) and shown as a decent human being in a crappy world.