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  • Published: 1 May 2010
  • ISBN: 9781407015569
  • Imprint: Vintage Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 480

Tess of the D'Urbervilles




Hardy's shocking and deeply moving novel about the one and only Tess of the D'urbervilles


‘Thomas Hardy's thrilling story of seduction, murder, cruelty and betrayal’ The Times

Tess is an innocent young girl until the day she goes to visit her rich 'relatives', the D'Urbervilles. Her encounter with her manipulative cousin, Alec, leads her onto a path that is beset with suffering and betrayal.

When she falls in love with another man, Angel Clare, Tess sees a potential escape from her past, but only if she can tell him her shameful secret...

  • Published: 1 May 2010
  • ISBN: 9781407015569
  • Imprint: Vintage Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 480

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About the author

Thomas Hardy

Thomas Hardy was born on 2 June 1840. His father was a stonemason. He was brought up near Dorchester and trained as an architect. In 1868 his work took him to St Juliot's church in Cornwall where he met his wife-to-be, Emma. His first novel, The Poor Man and the Lady, was rejected by publishers but Desperate Remedies was published in 1871 and this was rapidly followed by Under the Greenwood Tree (1872), A Pair of Blue Eyes (1873) and Far from the Madding Crowd (1874). He also wrote many other novels, poems and short stories. Tess of the D'Urbervilles was published in 1891. His final novel was Jude the Obscure (1895). Hardy was awarded the Order of Merit in 1920 and the gold medal of the Royal Society of Literature in 1912. His wife died in 1912 and he later married his secretary. Thomas Hardy died 11 January 1928.

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Praise for Tess of the D'Urbervilles

Hardy never used his "country" and his Greek ambitions to better effect

Melvyn Bragg

Like the greatest characters in literature, Tess lives beyond the final pages of the book as a permanent citizen of the imagination... Tess is that rare creature in literature: goodness made interesting

Irving Howe

Tess's beauty and the effect that it has on others gave me a sense of the destructive power of sex

Rufus Wainwright

There's something about Hardy especially that appeals to the melancholic girl

Belle de Jour

Thomas Hardy's Tess of the D'Urbervilles has a lush sensuality about the heat of summer and the heat of lust which makes the gorgeousness of Hardy's heroine and his country of Wessex both seems utterly desirable as the tale of tragic fate unfolds

The Times

Thomas Hardy's thrilling story of seduction, murder, cruelty and betrayal

The Times