Summarized & Analyzed: "Tess of the D'Urbervilles"

By Student World

“Tess of the D’Urbervilles” is one of the most discussed and argued novels in the history of English novels. It often gets included in the school and college syllabus for the students of English literature.

Thomas Hardly had also observed social class very deeply and the issue of social class often found a great space in his novels. It is said that Hardy had connections with both the working and upper class people of the contemporary society, but he realized that he did not fit in either of them.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Raja Sharma
• Release date: May 22, 2017
• ISBN: 9781370493951

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Summarized & Analyzed: Tess of the D'Urbervilles

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Summarized & Analyzed: Tess of the D'Urbervilles

Student World

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Summarized & Analyzed: Tess of the D'Urbervilles

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Introduction

About Tess of the D'Urbervilles

Plot Overview

About Major Characters

Complete Summary

Critical Analysis

Note

Introduction

Student World is a group of college lecturers and professors. We understand how high school and college students feel when they are given to read literature, especially classics. They generally get lost in the long and complex sentences, a parade of characters, and shifting narratives, thus making it difficult for them to make head from tail.

Our guide books are written in very simple and clear language, without exaggerating the facts. We do not include our opinions and never become too subjective while analyzing the works of literature.

We try to make our books as easy as possible for students to read them and learn from them so that when they read the original texts of the classics or other works of literature, they are prepared and they know what the work is about.

In this book we have included introduction to the book, plot overview, about major characters, complete summary, and critical analysis.

Although we know that some students do not want to read the original text because they prepare only to pass their exams or tests, yet we insist that they read the original text of Tess of the D'Urbervilles so that they can understand the subtle aspects of the narrative which can't be presented in this treatise.

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Student World

About Tess of the D'Urbervilles

Tess of the d’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy is one of the most widely read novels and probably one of the 100 all time best classics. This novel is subtitled A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented.

The novel was first published as a serial in The Graphic, a British illustrated newspaper, in 1891, but it was heavily censored. The novel was published in book form in 1893. It is surely one of the most significant novels written in the 19th century. It is also considered as Thomas Hardy’s fictional masterpiece.

Since the novel very openly challenged the sexual morals of the 19th century Victorian England, the book got into a controversy at the time of its first publication and most of the reviews were mixed.

It was the author’s 20th published novel. Before being published in the book form, the novel had been rejected by several publishers because of its controversial subject matter. It was not easy for the readers during the later part of the 19th century to accept a heroine who is seduced by the son of her employer and who thus is regarded as a pure and chaste woman by the other members of the society she is a part of.

The critics and scholars of the time did declare that it was a major work of fiction, but the novel was brutally criticized because it questioned the sexual mores of the contemporary English society in England.

The present novel and Hardy’s other novel Jude the Obscure compelled Thomas Hardy to go back to poetry writing from fiction writing. For all the criticism and mixed reviews, the novel brought a lot of commercial success to the author. Thomas Hardy was able to make him financially very secure after the publication and sales of the copies of this novel.

One of the major issues that the novel deals with is the struggles of religious belief. The Oxford movement is said to have highly influenced Thomas Hardy. It was a very popular spiritual movement that involved very devout thinking and actions. Hardy was from a very devout orthodox Christian family, and he had once thought of entering the clergy. Several of his relatives were serving the church. For all that, Thomas Hardy did not pursue that end because he was very much impressed by the scientific advances of his contemporaries.

Darwin’s On the Origin of Species had impressed Thomas Hardy very extensively. According to the contemporary scholars, Thomas Hardy strongly opposed the conservative religious beliefs of his parents. He took up a more religious and secular view of philosophy, thus creating an obvious distance between his belief and the beliefs of his family and relatives.

Thomas Hardly had also observed social class very deeply and the issue of social class often found a great space in his novels. It is said that Hardy had connections with both the working and upper class people of the contemporary society, but he realized that he did not fit in either of them.

Tess of the D’Urbervilles is one of the most discussed and argued novels in the history of English novels. It often gets included in the school and college syllabus for the students of English literature.

Most of private, public, and academic libraries around the world have this novel on their reading list. The novel has been adapted several times for movies, television serials, stage, and even comics.

Plot Overview

As the novel opens, there is a chance meeting between Parson Tringham and John Durbeyfield. John Durbeyfield has been impoverished; however, Parson addresses him as Sir John.

Parson says that he has recently come to know that the Durbeyfields are the descendants of the d’Urbervilles, a prominent family in