Tess feels so guilty over the horse's death and the economic consequences for the family that she agrees, against her better judgement, to visit Mrs d'Urberville, a rich widow who lives in a rural mansion near the town of Trantridge, and claim kin. However, she falls asleep at the reins, and the family's only horse encounters a speeding wagon and is fatally wounded. Tess's father gets too drunk to drive to the market that night, so Tess undertakes the journey herself. Angel notices Tess too late to dance with her, as he is already late for a promised meeting with his brothers. He stops to join the dance and partners several other girls.

That same day, Tess participates in the village May Dance, where she meets Angel Clare, youngest son of Reverend James Clare, who is on a walking tour with his two brothers. Knowledge of this immediately goes to John's head. However, John is given the impression by Parson Tringham that he may have noble blood as Durbeyfield is a corruption of D'Urberville, the surname of an extinct noble Norman family. Tess is the oldest child of John and Joan Durbeyfield, uneducated peasants. © 2016 Open Road Media (Ebook): 9781504034586In impoverished rural England, Thomas Hardy's fictional Wessex, during the Long Depression of the 1870s.

This ebook has been professionally proofread to ensure accuracy and readability on all devices. Now widely recognized as Thomas Hardy’s masterpiece, this tragic story of virtue destroyed is one of the most moving and unforgettable novels in English literature. An earnest suitor named Angel Clare offers hope for salvation, but Tess must decide whether to confess her sins to the minister’s son-or bury them forever.įirst published in 1891, Tess of the D’Urbervilles scandalized Victorian readers with its frank depictions of female sexuality and its impassioned criticism of social conventions.

Reluctantly, Tess agrees, but when she falls prey to the manipulations of Alec D’Urberville, the widow’s dissolute son, her search for love and happiness takes a disastrous turn. A young woman struggles against tradition and circumstance in this novel of love, class, and deceit from the author of Far from the Madding Crowd.Ĭonvinced that his impoverished family has noble connections, John Durbeyfield implores his daughter, Tess, to visit the wealthy Mrs.

Tess D'Urberville by Thomas Hardy