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Tess of the D'Urbervilles

Author Thomas Hardy
Introduction by Marcelle Clements
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Mass Market Paperback
$6.95 US
Berkley / NAL | Signet
On sale Sep 05, 2006 | 432 Pages | 978-0-451-53027-1
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  • English > Comparative Literature > Women in Literature
  • English > Literature > British Literature – 19th Century
  • English > Literature > British Literature – Victorian Period
  • Interdisciplinary Studies > Women's and Gender Studies > Women and Literature
  • About
  • Author
An intimate portrait of a woman, one of literature's most admirable and tragic heroines...

Tess Durbeyfield knows what it is to work hard and expect little. But her life is about to veer from the path trod by her mother and grandmother. When her ne’er-do-well father learns that his family is the last of a long noble line, the d’Urbervilles, he sends Tess on a journey to meet her supposed kin—a journey that will see her victimized by lust, poverty, and hypocrisy. Shaped by an acute sense of social injustice and by a vision of human fate cosmic in scope, her story is a singular blending of harsh realism and poignant beauty. Thomas Hardy created in Tess not a standard Victorian heroine but a woman whose intense vitality shines against the bleak backdrop of a dying way of life. The novel shocked contemporary readers with its honesty and remains a timeless commentary on the human condition.

With an Introduction by Marcelle Clements 
Thomas Hardy was born on June 2, 1840. In his writing, he immortalized the site of his birth—Egdon Heath, in Dorset, near Dorchester, England. Delicate as a child, he was taught at home by his mother before he attended grammar school. At 16, Hardy was apprenticed to an architect, and for many years, architecture was his profession; in his spare time, he pursued his first and last literary love, poetry. Finally convinced that he could earn his living as an author, he retired from architecture, married, and devoted himself to writing. An extremely productive novelist, Hardy published an important book every year or two. In 1896, disturbed by the public outcry over the unconventional subjects of his two greatest novels—Tess of the D'Urbervilles and Jude the Obscure—he announced that he was giving up fiction and afterward produced only poetry. In later years, he received many honors. He died on January 11, 1928, and was buried in Poets' Corner, in Westminster Abbey. It was as a poet that he wished to be remembered, but today critics regard his novels as his most memorable contribution to English literature for their psychological insight, decisive delineation of character, and profound presentation of tragedy.  View titles by Thomas Hardy

About

An intimate portrait of a woman, one of literature's most admirable and tragic heroines...

Tess Durbeyfield knows what it is to work hard and expect little. But her life is about to veer from the path trod by her mother and grandmother. When her ne’er-do-well father learns that his family is the last of a long noble line, the d’Urbervilles, he sends Tess on a journey to meet her supposed kin—a journey that will see her victimized by lust, poverty, and hypocrisy. Shaped by an acute sense of social injustice and by a vision of human fate cosmic in scope, her story is a singular blending of harsh realism and poignant beauty. Thomas Hardy created in Tess not a standard Victorian heroine but a woman whose intense vitality shines against the bleak backdrop of a dying way of life. The novel shocked contemporary readers with its honesty and remains a timeless commentary on the human condition.

With an Introduction by Marcelle Clements 

Author

Thomas Hardy was born on June 2, 1840. In his writing, he immortalized the site of his birth—Egdon Heath, in Dorset, near Dorchester, England. Delicate as a child, he was taught at home by his mother before he attended grammar school. At 16, Hardy was apprenticed to an architect, and for many years, architecture was his profession; in his spare time, he pursued his first and last literary love, poetry. Finally convinced that he could earn his living as an author, he retired from architecture, married, and devoted himself to writing. An extremely productive novelist, Hardy published an important book every year or two. In 1896, disturbed by the public outcry over the unconventional subjects of his two greatest novels—Tess of the D'Urbervilles and Jude the Obscure—he announced that he was giving up fiction and afterward produced only poetry. In later years, he received many honors. He died on January 11, 1928, and was buried in Poets' Corner, in Westminster Abbey. It was as a poet that he wished to be remembered, but today critics regard his novels as his most memorable contribution to English literature for their psychological insight, decisive delineation of character, and profound presentation of tragedy.  View titles by Thomas Hardy

Additional formats

  • Tess of the D'urbervilles
    Tess of the D'urbervilles
    Thomas Hardy
    978-1-101-14183-0
    $5.99 US
    Ebook
    Signet
    Sep 05, 2006
  • Tess of the D'urbervilles
    Tess of the D'urbervilles
    Thomas Hardy
    978-1-101-14183-0
    $5.99 US
    Ebook
    Signet
    Sep 05, 2006

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    978-0-345-80398-6
    $10.00 US
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    Mar 03, 2015
  • Far From the Madding Crowd
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    Jun 07, 2011
  • Jude the Obscure
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    May 07, 2009
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    $7.99 US
    Ebook
    Penguin Books
    Dec 17, 2008
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    Apr 01, 2008
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    Nov 25, 2003
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    May 27, 2003
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    Apr 29, 2003
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    Penguin Classics
    Apr 29, 2003
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    $11.00 US
    Paperback
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    Dec 11, 2001
  • Jude the Obscure
    Jude the Obscure
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    978-0-375-75741-9
    $12.00 US
    Paperback
    Modern Library
    Aug 14, 2001
  • Tess of the d'Urbervilles
    Tess of the d'Urbervilles
    A Pure Woman
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    978-0-375-75679-5
    $10.00 US
    Paperback
    Modern Library
    Feb 13, 2001
  • The Return of the Native
    The Return of the Native
    Thomas Hardy
    978-0-375-75718-1
    $10.00 US
    Paperback
    Modern Library
    Feb 13, 2001
  • Two on a Tower
    Two on a Tower
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    978-0-14-043536-8
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Penguin Classics
    Jul 01, 2000
  • The Return of the Native
    The Return of the Native
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    978-0-14-043518-4
    $10.00 US
    Paperback
    Penguin Classics
    Aug 01, 1999
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    A Pair of Blue Eyes
    Thomas Hardy
    978-0-14-043529-0
    $17.00 US
    Paperback
    Penguin Classics
    Dec 01, 1998
  • Selected Poems of Thomas Hardy
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    978-0-14-043699-0
    $14.00 US
    Paperback
    Penguin Classics
    Dec 01, 1998
  • Jude the Obscure
    Jude the Obscure
    Thomas Hardy
    978-0-14-043538-2
    $10.00 US
    Paperback
    Penguin Classics
    Sep 01, 1998
  • The Woodlanders
    The Woodlanders
    Thomas Hardy
    978-0-14-043547-4
    $12.00 US
    Paperback
    Penguin Classics
    Aug 01, 1998
  • The Woodlanders
    The Woodlanders
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    Thomas Hardy
    978-0-375-40082-7
    $24.00 US
    Hardcover
    Everyman's Library
    Jun 09, 1998
  • Hardy: Poems
    Hardy: Poems
    Thomas Hardy
    978-0-679-44368-1
    $14.95 US
    Hardcover
    Everyman's Library
    May 10, 1995
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