Book Review: Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy

 

When I finish a book I often feel a sense of catharsis; a strong bittersweet feeling in the realization that the world and the feelings of dread, hope and joy engendered from the author cannot be lived through again for the first time. With many books I feel a sense of closure, and a great joy in being able to start another adventure. With Tess of the D’urbervilles, I was emotionally hungry and desperate for more.

The book centers around a woman named Tess, a poor farmhand that realises that her family is of aristocratic ancestry. With the family desperate for a better life for their child, they send her off to meet estranged cousins of their D’urberville heritage in the hopes of securing a marriage. What follows are the experiences of Tess and the good and bad men she meet and the series of wrong choices she makes, either by circumstance or choice.

Hardy’s life perspective is very clear and resonates very strongly with my own; life is boring and tough, most of the time you would spend thinking or working towards what could be, instead of enjoying what is. Throughout the book Hardy spends a lot of time to explain the beautiful surrounding European landscape, but the characters hardly notice as they are surrounded by their own self-created misery brought about by wrong choices and conformity to Victorian social norms.

The book is a subject of its time. During that time, books were meant to entertain more than to pass some message of morals that we see books do today. Therefore the books are longer and feature more character building moments than progress the overarching story. If you are used to Victorian novels I would definitely recommend you read every word. I guarantee that it’s worth it. However, if you are not used to the style of Victorian novels, the length and non-progressive nature of the book is something that you will have to get used to.