World Youth Literature Classics Collection -- Tess

Author: Wu Di
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-07-01
Features: Tess of the d'Urbervilles is a tragic work. The protagonist, Tess, is a beautiful and kind rural girl. Due to her impoverished family background, she had to follow her mother's advice and go to work at a landlord's estate, where she was violated by the landlord's son, Alec, and returned to her hometown pregnant. After her child died, she went to work as a milkmaid at a dairy farm, where she met the son of a pastor, Angel Clare, and fell in love with him. On their wedding night, Tess, out of loyalty, confessed her past to Clare, only to be rejected by her husband. Clare immediately abandoned his wife and went alone to Brazil. After being abandoned, Tess went to work as a laborer on another farm. Just then, Alec suddenly reappeared and persistently pursued Tess. Later, when her father died, her mother fell ill, her siblings lost their education, the family fell onto the streets, and Clare disappeared without a trace, Tess had no choice but to "sacrifice herself to save her family" and agree to live with Alec. Unbeknownst to her, Clare, after enduring hardships, finally had a change of heart and returned from Brazil to find Tess. Overwhelmed with regret and fury, Tess stabbed Alec to death. She spent a few days of happiness with her husband in exile before being arrested and sentenced to death.