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Tess of the d'Urbervilles: A Pure Woman
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Tess of the d'Urbervilles: A Pure Woman Mass market paperbound - 1978

by Thomas Hardy; David Skilton (Editor); Introduction by A. Alvarez


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

Thomas Hardy was born on June 2, 1840. In his writing, he immortalized the site of his birth—Egdon Heath, in Dorset, near Dorchester. Delicate as a child, he was taught at home by his mother before he attended grammar school. At sixteen, 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 Poet’s 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.

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: A Pure Woman
  • Author Thomas Hardy; David Skilton (Editor); Introduction by A. Alvarez
  • Binding Mass Market Paperbound
  • Edition Reprint
  • Pages 534
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher Penguin Group, London
  • Date September 28, 1978
  • ISBN 9780140431353 / 0140431357
  • Weight 0.72 lbs (0.33 kg)
  • Dimensions 7.79 x 5.11 x 0.87 in (19.79 x 12.98 x 2.21 cm)
  • Library of Congress subjects Didactic fiction, Pastoral fiction
  • Dewey Decimal Code FIC
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Tess of the D'Urbervilles: A Pure Woman (Penguin Classics)
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Tess of the D'Urbervilles: A Pure Woman (Penguin Classics)

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Tess of the D'Urbervilles: A Pure Woman (Penguin Classics)
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Tess of the D'Urbervilles: A Pure Woman (Penguin Classics)

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Tess of the D'Urbervilles: Complete, Authoritative Text With Biographical and Historical...
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Tess of the D'Urbervilles: Complete, Authoritative Text With Biographical and Historical Contexts, Critical History, and Essays from Five Contemporary Critical Perspectives

by Hardy, Thomas;

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Tess of the d'Urbervilles (Penguin Classics Ser.)
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Tess of the D'Urbervilles
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Tess of the D'Urbervilles

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Tess of the D'Urbervilles: A Pure Woman (Penguin Classics)
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Tess of the D'Urbervilles: A Pure Woman (Penguin Classics)
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Tess of the d'Urbervilles : A Pure Woman
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