Tim Dolin Books

Young Tess Durbeyfield attempts to restore her family's fortunes by claiming their connection with the aristocratic d'Urbervilles. But Alec d'Urberville is a rich wastrel who seduces her and makes her life miserable. When Tess meets Angel Clare, she is offered true love and happiness, buther past catches up with her and she faces an agonizing moral choice.Hardy's indictment of society's double standards, and his depiction of Tess as "a pure woman," caused controversy in his day and has held the imagination of readers ever since. Hardy thought it his finest novel, and Tess the most deeply felt character he ever created. This unique critical textis taken from the authoritative Clarendon edition, which is based on the manuscript collated with all Hardy's subsequent revisions.

Tess is driven by her poverty into the service of her wealthy relations. Her lowly position leads her to become the victim of her cousin, Alec, her seducer and nemesis. When she marries Angel Clare, she confesses her past, but Clare is unforgiving and cruelly leaves her to face her destiny alone.

The romance of Dick Dewy and Fancy Day, which follows its course through the four seasons of one Wessex year, is counterpointed by the activities of the rustic members of the Mellstock church choir