Tess of the d'Urbervilles (Collectors' Library)

by Thomas Hardy (Author), Phillip Mallett (Introduction)

• Used

  Hardcover
  2003

  $5.74

  Tess Durbeyfield is driven by family poverty to claim kinship with the wealthy D'Urbevilles, and meeting her cousin Alec proves to be her downfall. When Angel Clare offers her love and salvation, she must choose whether to reveal her past or remain silent in the hope of a peaceful future.

• Used

  Paperback
  1993

  $3.21

  This critical edition of Thomas Hardy's 1891 British Victorian novel reprints the authoritative second impression of the 1920 Wessex edition together with five critical essays - newly commissioned or revised - that read Tess of the d'Urbervilles from five contemporary critical perspectives. Each critical essay is accompanied by a succinct introduction to the history, principles, and practice of the critical perspective and by a bibliography that promotes further exploration of that approach. In addition, the text and essays are complemented by an introduction providing biographical and historical contexts for Hardy and Tess of the d'Urbervilles, a survey of critical responses to the work since its initial publication, and a glossary of critical and theoretical terms.

• Used

  Hardcover
  1983

  $3.21

• New

  Paperback
  1992

  $6.84

  Introduction and Notes by Michael Irwin, Professor of English Literature, University of Kent at Canterbury. Set in Hardy's Wessex, Tess is a moving novel of hypocrisy and double standards. Its challenging sub-title, A Pure Woman, infuriated critics when the book was first published in 1891, and it was condemned as immoral and pessimistic. It tells of Tess Durbeyfield, the daughter of a poor and dissipated villager, who learns that she may be descended from the ancient family of d'Urbeville. In her search for respectability her fortunes fluctuate wildly, and the story assumes the proportions of a Greek tragedy. It explores Tess's relationships with two very different men, her struggle against the social mores of the rural Victorian world which she inhabits and the hypocrisy of the age. In addressing the double standards of the time, Hardy's masterly evocation of a world which we have lost, provides one of the most compelling stories in the canon of English literature, whose appeal today defies the judgement of Hardy's contemporary critics.