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Tess of the d'Urbervilles: Introduction by Patricia Ingham
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Tess of the d'Urbervilles: Introduction by Patricia Ingham Hardcover - 1991

by Thomas Hardy; Introduction by Patricia Ingham


About this book

Tess of the d'Urbervilles: A Pure Woman, was first published as a censored and serialized version in the British illustrated newspaper, The Graphic in 1891. 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. -

Summary

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.

From the publisher

Set in the magical Wessex landscape so familiar from Thomas Hardy's early work, Tess of the D'Urbervilles is unique among his great novels for the intense feeling that he lavished upon his heroine, Tess, a pure woman betrayed by love. Hardy poured all of his profound empathy for both humanity and the rhythms of natural life into this story of her beauty, goodness, and tragic fate. In so doing, he created a character who, like Emma Bovary and Anna Karenina, has achieved classic stature. (Book Jacket Status: Not Jacketed)

First Edition Identification

First published in 1891 by James R Osgood, McIlvaine & Co, London, in three volumes. Publisher's original sand-colored cloth with vertical linear designs of honeysuckle blossom on the upper covers, gilt decorations and lettering designed by Charles Ricketts. 

Details

  • Title Tess of the d'Urbervilles: Introduction by Patricia Ingham
  • Author Thomas Hardy; Introduction by Patricia Ingham
  • Binding Hardcover
  • Edition Reprint
  • Pages 522
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher Everyman's Library, U.S.A.
  • Date 1991-11-26
  • ISBN 9780679405863 / 0679405860
  • Weight 1.31 lbs (0.59 kg)
  • Dimensions 8.33 x 5.37 x 1.3 in (21.16 x 13.64 x 3.30 cm)
  • Library of Congress subjects Triangles (Interpersonal relations), Women murderers
  • Library of Congress Catalog Number 91052998
  • Dewey Decimal Code FIC

Media reviews

“[Tess of the D’Urbervilles is] Hardy’s finest, most complex and most notorious novel . . . The novel is not a mere plea for compassion for the eternal victim, though that is the banner it flies. It also involves a profound questioning of contemporary morality.” –from the Introduction by Patricia Ingham

About the author

Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) was born in Dorset, England, son of a stonemason. Though a gifted student, he was unable to afford to attend university. He was apprenticed to an architect at age sixteen and worked in London for several years before returning to Dorset and dedicating himself to writing novels and poems.
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Tess of the D'Urbervilles (Everyman's Library)
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Tess of the D'Urbervilles (Everyman's Library)

by Hardy, Thomas

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Tess of the d'Urbervilles: Introduction by Patricia Ingham
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Tess of the d'Urbervilles: Introduction by Patricia Ingham

by Hardy, Thomas

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Tess of the d'Urbervilles: Introduction by Patricia Ingham

Tess of the d'Urbervilles: Introduction by Patricia Ingham

by Hardy, Thomas

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Tess of the d'Urbervilles: Introduction by Patricia Ingham

Tess of the d'Urbervilles: Introduction by Patricia Ingham

by Hardy, Thomas

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Tess of the D'Urbervilles (Everyman's Library)
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Tess of the D'Urbervilles (Everyman's Library)

by Thomas Hardy

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Tess of the D'Urbervilles (Everyman's Library)

by Hardy, Thomas; Ingham, Patricia [Introduction]

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Tess of the D'Urbervilles (Everyman's Library)
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Tess of the D'Urbervilles (Everyman's Library)

by Hardy, Thomas; Ingham, Patricia [Introduction]

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Tess of the D'Urbervilles: A Pure Woman

Tess of the D'Urbervilles: A Pure Woman

by Thomas Hardy

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Tess of the D'Urbervilles (Everyman's Library)
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Tess of the D'Urbervilles (Everyman's Library)

by Hardy, Thomas; Ingham, Patricia [Introduction]

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ISBN 13
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