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Tess of the d'Urbervilles: A Novel of Fate, Society, and Moral Conflict
Hardcover
Classic FictionHistorical FictionLiterary Fiction
ISBN13: 9781515430391
Publisher: SMK Books
Published: Apr 3 2018
Pages: 372
Weight: 1.57
Height: 1.00 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
A late nineteenth-century novel examining social constraint, moral judgement, and the pressures exerted upon individual life within a stratified rural society.
Tess of the d'Urbervilles follows the life of Tess Durbeyfield, a young woman whose circumstances are shaped by accident, social expectation, and the inherited weight of class identity. Set against the landscape of rural Wessex, the novel traces her movement through a sequence of environments-domestic, agricultural, and urban-each contributing to the gradual unfolding of events that place her in conflict with prevailing moral standards.
Hardy's treatment is marked by a close attention to environment and inevitability, presenting human experience as conditioned by forces beyond individual control, including social convention, economic necessity, and chance. The narrative engages with questions of purity, responsibility, and justice, often in tension with the moral frameworks of the period. Its tone remains measured yet unflinching, allowing events to accumulate without overt authorial intervention.
First published in 1891, the novel provoked considerable controversy for its treatment of sexuality and its critique of Victorian moral assumptions. It has since come to be regarded as one of Hardy's principal works, occupying a central place in English literary history and continuing to attract critical attention for its thematic depth and formal construction.
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