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A review by mghoshlisbin
Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
medium-paced
5.0
I loved reading this book so deeply that it is almost difficult for me to compose a review of it here. I knew, in some sense, that I would enjoy this book, if only because I loved reading Jude the Obscure a couple of years ago. Even so, Tess of the D'Urbervilles exceeded my expectations.
WARNING: Spoilers ahead.
Thomas Hardy's Tess of the D'Urbervilles follows the story of Tess Durbeyfield, who comes to realize that her family is truly the lost lineage of the D'Urbervilles, a romantically affluent and noble line. This realization sets Tess off to the Stroke-d'Urberville estate as a maid, where she is beset upon by the wiles of the young son Alec. Alec takes advantage of the beautiful and innocent Tess, seducing her and pushing her boundaries, until he sexually assaults her. This assault results in a child, whom Tess names Sorrow and hides for fear of ostracization. The child, however, passes tragically, and Tess is left alone with her internalized shame. As time passes, Tess meets Angel Clare, the son of a strictly moralistic pastor, with whom she falls deeply in love. She struggles to tell him the truth of her past, that she is not the innocent milkmaid he thought her, but always succumbs to fear. On the day after their marriage, when they confess their deepest fears, she tells him and Angel, despite his deep love for her, feels deceived and angry, leaving her behind to find farmland in Brazil. In their time apart, Alec, who has undergone extreme religious conversion to atone for his sins, finds Tess again. Alec pursues her with abandon despite her desire to be free of him. In a moment of financial weakness, Alec promises to care for her family if she acquiesces to marriage. Convinced Angel will never want her back, she agrees and condemns herself to a life of forfeit. But Angel, coming to his senses, returns to find his wife married again, and their love lost a second time. In a fit of grief, Tess murders Alec in his bed and runs away with Angel. For a few days, they experience the marital bliss they were owed, before Tess is imprisoned and executed for her crimes.
If you come to this book, a classic Romantic woman's coming-of-age story, with the expectation of an Austen or Bronte positivistic outlook, you will be disappointed. The story of Tess is as tragic and heart-wrenching as it is painstakingly beautiful and eloquent. I had forgotten, in the couple year interim, just how startlingly beautiful Hardy's prose is.
I think I was most taken with the discussion of coincidence, clandestine fate, and the ways in which Hardy positions Tess as under the grudge of destiny or the gods. This plays deeply into the discussion of this novel as a Greek tragedy, rather than a more traditional Romantic classic. These questions draw not only on religious determinism, but also on whether the world is always defined by the binaries of good and evil. Hardy invokes Greek views on good and evil, as well as the Torah, the Old Testament and New Testament of the Bible. Hardy also cites Milton's Paradise Lost, and even likens Tess to Eve.
I think the centralization of Greek drama is cemented by the allusions to femininity (particularly Tess' femininity) as a sort of nature aligned, untamable thing. Though the desire to tame nature is inherently Romantic (think the manicured gardens in Pride and Prejudice or Friedrich's Wanderer above the Sea of Fog), Tess becomes almost nymph-like in Hardy's description, part of "unconstrained Nature" as opposed to the "abodes of Art". This is in large part why Tess would be so attractive to the morally decrepit (Alec) and the morally repressed (Clare). She embodies what Hardy addresses directly as the "ache of modernism".
It would do this novel a disservice to fail to discuss the role of feminism and the ways in which Hardy addresses the double standards we allow even "good men". Angel, who is undoubtedly a good man, falls head first into our bad books when he admits that he has spent time with women out of wedlock, but cannot help but judge Tess for being assaulted, sullied. Despite the fact that he logically knows she "was sinned against more than she [you] had sinned", he nonetheless feels that she is "not the woman he married", and cannot bear to be with her. Tess does not even consider judgment on his part. Hardy skips over the discussion so quickly, I barely remember it happened. Similarly, Clare's father forgives Alec for his previous sins, but this would not so quickly have been done for any woman.
The modern takes for feminism are fascinating as well. I was so utterly touched by the ways in which the women in this book hold love for one another. The relationships between Tess, Marian, Izz, and Retty is so true and gentle, despite the fact that the other three girls were also enamored with Angel. Despite the tragedy in their own lives, they never hold anything against Tess, and are her truest friends throughout the novel. I feel that many authors have a tendency to pit women against one another, particularly in the context of romantic rivalry. But Hardy resists against that narrative and it is appreciable and striking. Even further, one could say that Tess invokes her own ruin by way of internalized shame. Her decisions are often made through an internal mechanism of disgust in herself, which is not only undue, but bred by an unjust society. This trend of behavior is mirrored in our present day.
Finally I think it is interesting to note how critical Hardy is of organized religion. Where he seems complimentary toward pagan and Druid beliefs (the May Dance in chapter 1, or even the discussions of Stonehenge), he is clearly disproving of Christianity. Angel's brothers are both clerics without conscience, and the religious sign painter in earlier chapters who plasters walls in horrific red paint. Hardy is right, to argue that within the uneducated, understanding of religion IS shallow, and is used to arm deep forms of bigotry, meaningless cruelty, and overt ignorance. (uh, see literally any Trump rally if you need an example). Characters like Tess and Angel seem more aware of the deeper meanings of some of the religious scriptures that are cited (i.e. when Tess questions the sign painter or Angel's intelligent entreaties on religion and philosophy).
Overall, there were so many fantastic elements to this novel. Though deeply tragic, it was also incredibly accessible for classic fiction, and it flew by. I fell in love with Tess and her humility, her grace. I loved Angel despite his flaws, despite how late he was in breaking through the rigid judgments instilled by his parents. I hated Alec with a vengeance.
5/5
WARNING: Spoilers ahead.
Thomas Hardy's Tess of the D'Urbervilles follows the story of Tess Durbeyfield, who comes to realize that her family is truly the lost lineage of the D'Urbervilles, a romantically affluent and noble line. This realization sets Tess off to the Stroke-d'Urberville estate as a maid, where she is beset upon by the wiles of the young son Alec. Alec takes advantage of the beautiful and innocent Tess, seducing her and pushing her boundaries, until he sexually assaults her. This assault results in a child, whom Tess names Sorrow and hides for fear of ostracization. The child, however, passes tragically, and Tess is left alone with her internalized shame. As time passes, Tess meets Angel Clare, the son of a strictly moralistic pastor, with whom she falls deeply in love. She struggles to tell him the truth of her past, that she is not the innocent milkmaid he thought her, but always succumbs to fear. On the day after their marriage, when they confess their deepest fears, she tells him and Angel, despite his deep love for her, feels deceived and angry, leaving her behind to find farmland in Brazil. In their time apart, Alec, who has undergone extreme religious conversion to atone for his sins, finds Tess again. Alec pursues her with abandon despite her desire to be free of him. In a moment of financial weakness, Alec promises to care for her family if she acquiesces to marriage. Convinced Angel will never want her back, she agrees and condemns herself to a life of forfeit. But Angel, coming to his senses, returns to find his wife married again, and their love lost a second time. In a fit of grief, Tess murders Alec in his bed and runs away with Angel. For a few days, they experience the marital bliss they were owed, before Tess is imprisoned and executed for her crimes.
If you come to this book, a classic Romantic woman's coming-of-age story, with the expectation of an Austen or Bronte positivistic outlook, you will be disappointed. The story of Tess is as tragic and heart-wrenching as it is painstakingly beautiful and eloquent. I had forgotten, in the couple year interim, just how startlingly beautiful Hardy's prose is.
I think I was most taken with the discussion of coincidence, clandestine fate, and the ways in which Hardy positions Tess as under the grudge of destiny or the gods. This plays deeply into the discussion of this novel as a Greek tragedy, rather than a more traditional Romantic classic. These questions draw not only on religious determinism, but also on whether the world is always defined by the binaries of good and evil. Hardy invokes Greek views on good and evil, as well as the Torah, the Old Testament and New Testament of the Bible. Hardy also cites Milton's Paradise Lost, and even likens Tess to Eve.
I think the centralization of Greek drama is cemented by the allusions to femininity (particularly Tess' femininity) as a sort of nature aligned, untamable thing. Though the desire to tame nature is inherently Romantic (think the manicured gardens in Pride and Prejudice or Friedrich's Wanderer above the Sea of Fog), Tess becomes almost nymph-like in Hardy's description, part of "unconstrained Nature" as opposed to the "abodes of Art". This is in large part why Tess would be so attractive to the morally decrepit (Alec) and the morally repressed (Clare). She embodies what Hardy addresses directly as the "ache of modernism".
It would do this novel a disservice to fail to discuss the role of feminism and the ways in which Hardy addresses the double standards we allow even "good men". Angel, who is undoubtedly a good man, falls head first into our bad books when he admits that he has spent time with women out of wedlock, but cannot help but judge Tess for being assaulted, sullied. Despite the fact that he logically knows she "was sinned against more than she [you] had sinned", he nonetheless feels that she is "not the woman he married", and cannot bear to be with her. Tess does not even consider judgment on his part. Hardy skips over the discussion so quickly, I barely remember it happened. Similarly, Clare's father forgives Alec for his previous sins, but this would not so quickly have been done for any woman.
The modern takes for feminism are fascinating as well. I was so utterly touched by the ways in which the women in this book hold love for one another. The relationships between Tess, Marian, Izz, and Retty is so true and gentle, despite the fact that the other three girls were also enamored with Angel. Despite the tragedy in their own lives, they never hold anything against Tess, and are her truest friends throughout the novel. I feel that many authors have a tendency to pit women against one another, particularly in the context of romantic rivalry. But Hardy resists against that narrative and it is appreciable and striking. Even further, one could say that Tess invokes her own ruin by way of internalized shame. Her decisions are often made through an internal mechanism of disgust in herself, which is not only undue, but bred by an unjust society. This trend of behavior is mirrored in our present day.
Finally I think it is interesting to note how critical Hardy is of organized religion. Where he seems complimentary toward pagan and Druid beliefs (the May Dance in chapter 1, or even the discussions of Stonehenge), he is clearly disproving of Christianity. Angel's brothers are both clerics without conscience, and the religious sign painter in earlier chapters who plasters walls in horrific red paint. Hardy is right, to argue that within the uneducated, understanding of religion IS shallow, and is used to arm deep forms of bigotry, meaningless cruelty, and overt ignorance. (uh, see literally any Trump rally if you need an example). Characters like Tess and Angel seem more aware of the deeper meanings of some of the religious scriptures that are cited (i.e. when Tess questions the sign painter or Angel's intelligent entreaties on religion and philosophy).
Overall, there were so many fantastic elements to this novel. Though deeply tragic, it was also incredibly accessible for classic fiction, and it flew by. I fell in love with Tess and her humility, her grace. I loved Angel despite his flaws, despite how late he was in breaking through the rigid judgments instilled by his parents. I hated Alec with a vengeance.
5/5