Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy > Reviews

Advantages: it's a good story.
Disadvantages: very depresssing

Tess of the D'Urbervilles is a novel that frequently comes up an A level reading lists. It's a well known Hardy novel (helped by the Roman Polanski film of the book) and a particularly depressing one at that. I'm going to do a plot spoiler, so If you don't want to know what happens, don't read the next paragraph. A chance remark by the local vicar causes Tess's father to realise that his family is descended from nobility. When a freak accident ... Read review

Advantages: A good read and use of language
Disadvantages: A little depressing at times

When Tess of the d’Urbervilles was first published 1891, it caused a great stir. This story was one of the first to include a great variety of topics such as murder, rape and violence. Written by Thomas Hardy, it is a rather depressing novel that follows the life of Tess Durbeyfield who seems to have continuous theme of bad luck throughout her life. The novel begins with John Durbeyfield begin informed by a Parson that he and his family belong to ... Read review

Advantages: Tess is a brilliant creation
Disadvantages: Shame the story doesn't match

...tells the painful story of Tess Durbeyfield, who struggles to overcome the problems of ignorance and poverty, and gets herself into all manner of heartbreaking situations. She is raped, contemplates suicide several times, and the book finishes with her capture and execution for murdering her attacker. However, don't be fooled, none of this is as exciting as it sounds. Some of the other unimportant issues contemplated by Hardy are the way in which ... Read review

Advantages: insightful and thought provoking
Disadvantages: bleak ending

Do not read Tess if you are in one of those grumpy moods and need cheering up. It is horridly bleak. Hardy explores all the avenues of chance and fate and comes up with a devastatingly heart wrenching outcome. I won't tell you what it is but just be prepared for it all. Symbolism, imagery and the link between one motiff and another is well done giving the chapters a sense of continuity. Every character's actions are intricately linked to another's ... Read review

Advantages: -
Disadvantages: -

Tess of the d'Uerberville is in my opinion one of Thomas Hardy's best book. It's about a tragic heroin, who's life is 'blighted' like the stars. Her social class, society, her fate all 'doom' her. When she reluctantly goes to 'claim kin' she meets trouble. Alec Durberfield, who embodies money, the higher social class, who sues his superiority against her, exploiting her, and eventually raping away. Whether she was raped or not, it doesn't really ... Read review

Advantages: Brilliant plot and characters
Disadvantages: lengthy, incongrous descriptions

Tess of the D'urbervilles is a plot revolving around the impressive landscapes of Wessex, where Hardy set most of his novels, and the eponymous heroine; Tess Durbeyfield. The book is highly saturated with Hardy's lengthy descriptions yet gives a wonderful social commentary of contemporary 'Hardy' Wessex and the trials he put his heroine through. At a young age Tess is thrown into adulthood when her parents believe themselves to be descendants of ... Read review

Advantages: good read
Disadvantages: too descripive at times

Tess of the d'Urbervilles A brilliant book written in the first person, by Thomas Hardy. He acts like a 'god like narrator' controlling his main charchters Tess's fate. However, this novel has many hidden messages, the love for the natural countryside, the hatred towards the upper classes, the despair for the dying social classes, and the rejection of religion, which he believed to be man made. The story itself is brilliant, we follow the plight ... Read review

Advantages: Captivating, heart-rendering and totally enjoyable
Disadvantages: Quite long so takes a while to get through

...Century' but the story of Tess is about so much more than that. It combines childhood innocence and girlish naivete with the real world of cruelty and down right bad luck. Tess's story is one of betrayal and heartbreak, it is tragic and yet, despite the negative events in the novel, like Steinbeck's works, Hardy keeps the reader enthralled throughout without feeling miserable. Although written a long time ago, the novel addresses issues that are still ... Read review

Advantages: well-written
Disadvantages: hardly an enjoyable yarn

...and coincidence! The book follows Tess Durbeyfield who begins life as a poor young country girl. Hardy, in favour of the countryside, has her represent purity. However even at the start of the novel it is clear things will not go smoothly for Tess. One day the family find they are related to the rich D'Urbervilles and Tess is sent off to investigate, there she meets Alec D'Urberville whom is destined to haunt her throughout the novel and things start ... Read review

Advantages: good read
Disadvantages: a little boring

Thomas Hardy's Tess of the d'Urbervilles begins with the chance meeting between Parson Tringham and John Durbeyfield. The parson addresses the impoverished Durbeyfield as "Sir John," and remarks that he has just learned that the Durbeyfields are descended from the d'Urbervilles, a family once renowned in England. Although Parson Tringham mentions this only to note how the mighty have fallen, John Durbeyfield rejoices over the news. Durbeyfield arrives ... Read review

Advantages: Interesting storyline
Disadvantages: Hardy can be a bit too descriptive

I read Tess of the D'Urbervilles for English in my final year of high school. It was the second Hardy novel I'd read and wasn't a novel that I enjoyed particularly. I find Hardy and Dickens quite similar, but I personally find Dickens to be a wittier writer with more of a knack for characterisation than Hardy. With Hardy, it is sometimes hard to connect with his characters, and this was certainly true in "Tess". For a start, the events in the ... Read review

Advantages: wonderful imagery
Disadvantages: not long enough

...by the amount of devotion Tess had to the people she loved. A must read, especially for 20 something females! I will never judge a book by the blurb on the back again!!!! ... Read review