Tess of the d'Urbervilles

Author: (English) Hardy / Wang Jing
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2005-01-01
Features: Reading is an important way to improve English proficiency. For college students who already have high school-level English, reading original works of literature is particularly significant. Through reading original works, one can directly experience the thoughts and emotions, social conditions, customs, and ways of thinking of the people. This is not only beneficial for enhancing literary appreciation and enriching English knowledge but also plays an irreplaceable role in improving English proficiency. The literature is vast, and college students have limited time. Reading excellent works through intensive study is the best way to acquire knowledge and improve English proficiency. Based on this consideration, Qingdao Publishing House has organized relevant experts to carefully select and compile this series of classic literature. This series consists of 10 books, including "The Great Gatsby," "The Heart of Darkness," "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn," "The Picture of Dorian Gray," "Robinson Crusoe," "The Apple Tree," "The Red Badge of Courage," "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow," "The Portrait of a Young Artist," and "Oliver Twist."
Recommendation Reasons:
1) Expertly Selected Masterpieces: Renowned experts in foreign literature have repeatedly screened and selected the classics of literature, choosing the best from the best. The selected works are not only representative but also consider readability and language difficulty.
2) Preface by a Famous Scholar and Expert Guidance: The renowned foreign literature expert Fang Ping wrote the preface, believing that readers with a certain level of English proficiency must selectively read excellent literature to further improve their literary. Each selected work is accompanied by expert guidance, providing historical background and author introductions to help readers better understand the artistic techniques, character traits, and main content of the works.
3) Expert Annotations for Easy Reading: The difficult points in this series have been annotated by literature experts, allowing readers to read the entire book without constantly consulting a dictionary, saving both time and effort.
4) Appropriately Challenging and Affordable: When selecting the works, the compilers also considered the difficulty and length of the works to help readers understand the classics of literature and improve their English proficiency quickly and easily.
Reading Suggestions:
How to read this series of books, Fang Ping suggests that college students read as British writer Francis Bacon advised: Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some to be chewed and digested. College students can choose to read intensively or extensively according to their needs to achieve the best learning effect.
The novel "Tess of the d'Urbervilles" is the masterpiece of Thomas Hardy (1840–1928), a famous British novelist and poet. In his youth, Hardy worked as an architect before becoming a professional writer. For most of his life, he lived in the countryside, and his novels were all set in rural settings, titled "Wessex Novels." Wessex was the ancient name of his hometown, and most of his novels were set in this region. The novel depicts the tragic fate of a rural girl, Tess, who was humiliated. Tess was a simple girl who wanted to earn a living through her own labor and pursue basic personal happiness. However, the oppressive forces of society did not spare even such a weak woman, ultimately leading to her tragedy. The novel's strong anti-religious, anti-feudal moral, and anti-bourgeois legal tendencies, though opposed by the British upper class at the time, were loved by a wide readership. It was quickly translated into multiple languages upon publication and was even adapted into films multiple times, bringing worldwide fame to Hardy.
In the beautiful and tranquil Breckland surrounded by mountains, the d'Urberville family lived in poverty. Old d'Urberville was a rural peddler, engaging in small trades, and the family of nine barely managed to sustain themselves by farming with an old horse. One evening in late May, while on the way to the village of Marden, the Rev. Clare told d'Urberville a useless piece of news: he had discovered that d'Urberville was a direct descendant of the ancient warrior family of d'Urberville. By nature lazy and fond of alcohol, d'Urberville, upon learning of his noble lineage, became even more drunk that night. Unable to deliver the goods due to his drunkenness, d'Urberville's 17-year-old daughter Tess bravely took over her father's task of selling honeycombs to the market. However, on the way to the market, her horse's carriage collided with a mail coach, killing the old horse and leaving the family without a source of income. Tess felt deep sorrow and shame. To help her family out of their, she followed her mother's arrangement and went to a wealthy d'Urberville grandmother in Pureleigh to claim kinship.
Mr. d'Urberville was a merchant in the north of England. Having accumulated wealth, he aspired to settle in the south and live as a squire. Therefore, he chose the ancient surname "d'Urberville" from a museum and pretended to be a noble squire. Mrs. d'Urberville was a eccentric blind grandmother. Her son, Ale, in his mid-twenties, was a playboy. The moment he saw the beautiful Tess, he set his sights on possessing her. He asked Tess to work in his chicken farm. Tess, in Pureleigh, was completely at Ale's mercy. She filled with suspicion, rejecting his advances everywhere but unable to avoid him. One Saturday evening in September, after finishing the market, Tess and her companions returned to the village. A group of drunk women deliberately insulted Tess. Humiliated and angry, she longed to leave them as quickly as possible. Ale, who was following behind, rode forward and asked Tess to mount his horse. Without hesitation, she climbed onto his horse. They rode for a while, and Ale had already led them down a path far from Pureleigh. At midnight, when Tess realized, they had arrived in an ancient forest preserve. The forest was dark and foggy, making it impossible to discern direction or path. Terrified, Tess wanted to walk back alone, but it was impossible. She sat on a pile of leaves while Ale went to find their way. When he returned in the dark, he stumbled upon something. The indistinct grayish-white was Tess, dressed in white, lying on the dry leaves. Ale knelt down, his face touching hers. She was sleeping soundly, her tears still wet on her lashes. Darkness and silence enveloped them.
Furious and resentful, Tess left Pureleigh a month later, carrying a heavy basket, and walked home along the mountain path. After returning home, Tess told her mother what had happened. Her mother's only concern was that Ale had no intention of marrying her. Tess was heartbroken. Soon, news of Tess spread through the village, and she was mocked and gossiped about. She hid at home, afraid to go out. Worse still, Tess discovered horrifying changes in her body. A child came into her life, but it died soon after. Now, she knew that the path ahead was long and rugged, and she would have to walk it alone, without sympathy or help. Overwhelmed by depression, she longed for a grave to bury herself in. She often wondered if a woman's virtue could be lost forever after losing it once. All living organisms had the ability to restore to their original state, why not a virgin's virtue? She decided to leave her hometown, where her past made her feel suffocated, and start a new life in an unfamiliar place.
Another spring arrived, and Tess left home for the second time, taking a job as a milkmaid at a dairy farm in Tabor. The scenery was picturesque, and Tess felt joyful. There, she met a young man named Angel Clare. Angel was the son of a low-church clergyman who did not want to inherit his father's profession as a minister but wanted to be a farmer and landowner. He learned milking techniques at the dairy and noticed that the quiet Tess was different from other rural girls. He fell in love with her, seeing her as a beautiful and innocent girl, believing her to be the perfect one. He began to pay attention to her and get closer to her. They met frequently, often in the dim morning light, among the violets or at the pink dawn. Because milking required getting up very early, and the earliest risers were usually the two of them, they often found themselves in the vast, misty grasslands, where the light and fog blended, giving them a sense of being isolated from the world, as if they were Adam and Eve.
Through their shared labor, their feelings for each other grew, and gradually, they fell in love with passion. Angel's love for Tess changed his vision of life. He wanted to give up the arranged marriage his family had planned for him and marry Tess, the daughter of nature, full of poetry. Tess loved Angel deeply, but the shame of her past haunted her, causing her immense pain. She tried several times to tell him about her past but swallowed her words at the last moment. Tess carried a heavy cross. She felt that not telling Angel about her past would be a deception to him. Therefore, a few days before the wedding, she gathered the courage to write him a letter explaining her past. She slipped the letter under his door, leaving it to his discretion. However, the letter fell under the carpet and was never seen by Angel. On the wedding day, Tess discovered the letter under the carpet and, disappointed, destroyed it, deciding to tell him that night.
On their wedding night, they arrived at a rented house, the ancestral home of Tess's family. Before Tess could tell Angel about her past, he revealed a part of his own. He had spent 48 hours in reckless living with a woman he had never met in London. As soon as Angel admitted his guilt to Tess, she immediately forgave him. Hearing his story, she felt an inexplicable sense of relief and joy, realizing that her own sins were no greater than his. But she never expected that when she revealed her own story, Angel would not forgive her. He turned cold, mocking Tess as the descendant of a fallen noble family, a rural woman who knew nothing of dignity. No matter how she pleaded, he remained unmoved. Angel was an advanced thinker with a kind heart, a typical figure of his time. Although he tried to judge things independently, when faced with the extraordinary, he was still a slave to conventions. He abandoned Tess and went alone to Brazil.
Tess was left alone in despair. She endured silently, waiting for a day when she could reconcile with Angel. To preserve his reputation, she refused to tell her parents about his departure or reveal her identity as his wife to outsiders. She used the money Angel left her to support her family and lived without means, taking on short-term jobs. In winter, Tess walked alone on the path to the highland farm. She wore a workwoman's uniform, her half face covered with a cloth, and her eyebrows plucked. Passersby were startled by her appearance. Tess, tears in her eyes, said to herself, "From now on, I will always dress to appear ugly, because Angel is not here to protect me. I love only him, and I am willing to be despised by other men." She worked at a place called Lorrimer, enduring scorn and mistreatment, and was assigned to do menial labor. She tirelessly fed bundles of wheat into a high-speed threshing machine, gasping for breath, but she endured, waiting for Angel's news, hoping one day they could be reunited.
On December 30 of the following year, Tess heard a preacher deliver a sermon. The preacher was none other than Ale, who had bullied her. Four years earlier, Ale had been full of obscenities, but now he spoke of virtue and morality. His hypocrisy disgusted Tess. Seeing Tess, Ale abandoned his sermon and his teachings, and once again began to harass her at the farm. Tess furiously slapped his ear with her glove. But Ale was not satisfied. He threatened fiercely, "Remember this, my lady, you could not escape my grasp then, and you cannot escape it now. If you are to be a wife, you will be my wife!" Unable to bear the heavy physical labor and Ale's relentless harassment and threats, Tess wrote a heartfelt letter to Angel, pleading for his help to save her. Meanwhile, a female coworker of Tess also wrote a letter to Angel, urging him to return quickly to protect his wife.
Far in Brazil, Angel suffered greatly, contracting a fever that shattered his dream of farming. He began to regret his past actions and realized his cruelty and injustice to Tess. Although Tess's virtue had been compromised, her character remained noble. Angel recognized his mistake and returned to England to find his wife, determined to make amends. However, when he found Tess in an apartment by the sea, it was too late. It turned out that after her father's death, Tess had been waiting for Angel's reply but had no choice but to return to Ale to support her mother and five siblings. Seeing this, Angel left in despair. Angel's return brought immense pain to Tess. She felt her entire life had been ruined by Ale. In her despair, she killed Ale with a table knife and chased after the departing Angel. They avoided the main roads and hid in an empty house in the wilderness, spending their happiest days as husband and wife.
Later, they came to a heath with standing stones. Weary Tess lay on the altar and told Angel that she hoped he would marry her sister, Liza, after her death. The police, who had been tracking them, discovered their hiding place after a few days. Tess, seeing the strangers, was not frightened, for it was what she had expected. She stood up, shook the dirt from her clothes, and calmly said to them, "I am done. Let's go." When dawn broke, Tess was led away by the police, walking to the scaffold with composure. Angel, following Tess's wishes, took her sister and began a new life.