Tess

Author: Thomas Hardy
Publisher:
Publication Date: 2000-09-01
Features: In the history of English literature, Thomas Hardy (1840–1928) was a literary giant who spanned two centuries. From 1867 to 1896, he devoted himself to novel writing, publishing 14 full-length novels and 4 short story collections, making outstanding contributions to the development of late 19th-century English fiction. From 1897 to 1928, he turned to poetry, publishing 8 poetry collections and 1 epic drama, playing a pioneering role in the development of 20th-century English poetry. Tess of the d'Urbervilles is a tragic work. The heroine of the novel, Tess, is a beautiful and kind rural girl. Due to her family's poverty, she had to follow her mother's advice and go to work on 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 a dairy farm as a milkmaid and there met the son of a pastor, Angel Clare, and fell in love with him. On their wedding night, Tess, out of complete 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 on another farm. Just then, Alec suddenly reappeared and persistently. Later, when her father died, her mother fell ill, her siblings lost their schooling, the family fell onto the streets, and Clare was nowhere to be found, Tess had no choice but to "sacrifice herself for the family" and agree to live with Alec. Little did she know that, after enduring trials and tribulations, Clare finally had a change of heart and returned from Brazil to find Tess. Overwhelmed with remorse and fury, Tess stabbed Alec to death. In her days of fleeing, she experienced a brief period of happiness with her husband, only to be arrested and sentenced to death.