World Literature, Fiction Subjects

Tess of the D'Urbervilles

Name: Tess of the D'Urbervilles
Author: Thomas Hardy
ISBN: 9780141040332

by Thomas Hardy, Tim Dolin (Editor), Coralie Bickford-Smith (Illustrator), Margaret Randolph Higonnet (Introduction), Tim Dolin

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Overview

When Tess Durbeyfield is driven by family poverty to claim kinship with the wealthy D'Urbervilles and seek a portion of their family fortune, meeting her 'cousin' Alec proves to be her downfall. A very different man, Angel Clare, seems to offer her love and salvation, but Tess must choose whether to reveal her past or remain silent in the hope of a peaceful future. With its sensitive depiction of the wronged Tess and powerful criticism of social convention, Tess of the D'Urbervilles is one of the most moving and poetic of Hardy's novels.

Synopsis

A ne'er-do-well exploits his gentle daughter's beauty for social advancement in Thomas Hardy's compelling masterpiece of tragic fiction.

Nann Blaine Hilyard - Library Journal

Hardy's classic 1891 novel, about a young woman's attempt at redemption following a scandal, demonstrates his fatalistic view regarding free will. Audie® Award winner Simon Vance's reading is straightforward, well paced, and clear, even when the characters speak in West Country dialect. This is an excellent choice for public libraries wanting to boost their classics collections, and the accompanying fulltext PDF ebook (which can be played in tandem with the MP3 recording) makes it useful also for high school and academic libraries. [Audio clip available through www.tantor.com; alternate recordings recently available from Blackstone Audio (12 CDs. unabridged. 2008. ISBN 9781433214998. $110; 1 MP3CD. ISBN 9781433215001. $44.95) and Naxos AudioBooks (14 CDs. unabridged. 2008. ISBN 9789626348673. $89.98).-Ed.]

About the Author, Thomas Hardy

Victorian novelist and poet Thomas Hardy focused much of his work -- including classics like Far from the Madding Crowd (1874) and Tess of the d'Urbervilles (1891) on man's futile struggle against unseen forces. Of his rather unromantic outlook on life, Hardy once said, "Pessimism is, in brief, playing the sure game. You cannot lose at it; you may gain. It is the only view of life in which you can never be disappointed."

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Editorials

Library Journal

This edition of the Hardy classic includes a complete authoritative text plus biographical and historical contexts, critical history, essays by five scholars, and a glossary. A fine scholarly edition for the academic crowd.

Booknews

Introduces students to several critical approaches to literature through a reading of Hardy's novel. Includes a 1920 reimpression of the novel and essays on New Historicism, feminist and gender criticism, deconstruction, reader-response criticism, and cultural criticism. Each of these essays includes an overview of the approach, the approach applied to , and a selected bibliography. No index. Distributed by St. Martin's Press. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

From the Publisher

"Audie Award winner Simon Vance's reading is straightforward, well paced, and clear." —-Library Journal Audio Review

From Barnes & Noble

The tragic story of a woman wronged by two men and by the harsh, repressive society in which she lives. Hardy's most striking and tragic heroine, Tess is a woman of intense vitality and innate goodness, and the author's favorite character.