Tess of the d'Urbervilles is a novel by Thomas Hardy. It initially appeared in a censored and serialized version, published by the British illustrated newspaper The Graphic in 1891, then in book form in three volumes in 1891, and as a single volume ... Read more

Tess of the d'Urbervilles is a novel by Thomas Hardy. It initially appeared in a censored and serialized version, published by the British illustrated newspaper The Graphic in 1891, then in book form in three volumes in 1891, and as a single volume in 1892. Though now considered a major nineteenth-century English novel and possibly Hardy's fictional masterpiece, Tess of the d'Urbervilles received mixed reviews when it first appeared, in part because it challenged the sexual morals of late Victorian England......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. In 2008 the novel was adapted into a 4-hour BBC television serial of the same name. The script was written by David Nicholls. The series commenced in the United Kingdom on 14 September 2008 and ran until 5 October 2008 airing in four parts on BBC One. In the United States, it aired as part of PBS's Masterpiece Classic in two parts from 4 January until 11 January 2009. In Australia, ABC1 also opted to air this series as a two-part special each Sunday at 8:30 pm from 11 April until 18 April 2010. It starred Gemma Arterton as Tess, Hans Matheson as Alec, Eddie Redmayne as Angel, Ruth Jones as Joan, Anna Massey as Mrs. d'Urberville and Kenneth Cranham as Rev. Clare. The novel had also in 1998 been previously adapted into a three-hour television serial made by London Weekend Television. The screenplay for the 1998 adaptation was done by Ted Whitehead and starred Justine Waddell as Tess Durbeyfield.  Less