Set in rural Victorian England, this 1891 fiction follows Tess Durbeyfield, a young peasant woman whose family discovers they may be descended from nobility. When Tess seeks help from wealthy relatives, a tragic encounter sets her on a path of hardship, love, and moral conflict that exposes the harsh realities faced by women in 19th-century English society.
On an evening in the latter part of May a middle-aged man was walking homeward from Shaston to the village of Marlott, in the adjoining Vale of Blakemore, or Blackmoor. The pair of legs that carried him were rickety, and there was a bias in his gait which inclined him somewhat to the left of a straight line. He occasionally gave a smart nod, as if in confirmation of some opinion, though he was not thinking of anything in particular. An empty egg-basket was slung upon his arm, the nap of his hat was ruffled, a patch being quite worn away at its brim where his thumb came in taking it off. Presently he was met by an elderly parson astride on a gray mare, who, as he rode, hummed a wandering tune. “Good night t’ee,” said the man with the basket. The pedestrian, after another pace or two, halted, and turned round.Continue reading →
A Victorian novelist and poet who captured rural English life with unflinching realism, this master storyteller (1840-1928) created tragic tales of individuals crushed by social conventions and fate. His novels like Tess of the d'Urbervilles and The Mayor of Casterbridge revealed the harsh realities beneath idealized country living, influencing modern literature's psychological depth. All works by Thomas Hardy →
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