Reading the Classics: Tess of the d’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy

Another installment in my "Reading the Classics" series. This time I tackle "Tess of the d'Ubervilles" by Thomas Hardy, and change my opinion (somewhat) from a previous read.

The book

The book, like many of its time, was first published in a serialized version. It was published as such in 1891 in the British illustrated newspaper “The Graphic” and as a book in 1892. It is considered one of the major novels of 19th century England, and some think it is Hardy’s masterpiece. When it first came out, it had mixed reviews, because it challenged the sexual morals of the time. 

The author

Thomas Hardy was born in 1840 and wrote about Victorian society at the end of the 19th century. He was influenced by Charles Dickens, but focused more on rural society, rather than Dickens’ cityscapes. He wrote a lot of poetry, but was mainly know for his novels during his lifetime. He was in school until the age of 16, when he was apprenticed to a local architect. He trained as an architect for a number of years, working and studying in London for a time. After a few years he moved back to his old area due to health concerns and dedicated himself to writing. During his time in London, he had become interested in social reform. In 1910 he was nominated for the Nobel Prize in literature for the first time. Hardy died after a short illness in January 1928. He had wished to be buried at Stinsford with his first wife Emma, but his executor insisted, that he be buried in the famous Poet’s Corner in Westminster Abbey. Compromising, his heart was buried with Emma and his ashes in Poet’s Corner. Shortly after his death all his letters and notebooks were burned, only a few surviving. 

Review

I remember reading this book ages and ages ago, and on my Goodreads it was marked as a one-star-read. I could hardly remember any of it, except that I had found it dreary, so I decided to give it another go with this project of mine, thinking that perhaps my reading tastes have matured a little since the first time around. 

I definitely liked it better than I remember. I might just have been too young and impatient to deal with what is decidedly a longwinded tale. Beware of spoilers below as I will go into some detail of the plot and characters. 

The story is about a young girl, Tess, whose father finds out that they descend from the ancient family of d’Urberville, even though they now live in poverty. He and his wife decide that Tess should go work for a rich man, whom they believe to be their cousin. Tess goes, but soon finds out that the young man has more than family feelings towards her. They end up having an affair, and while Tess’ mother secretly hoped that this would happen and the young man would marry her daughter, nothing comes of it, and Tess returns home, unmarried. Soon she sets off again and finds work somewhere else. Here she meets another young man, Angel Clare, who falls in love with her and wants to marry her. Tess at first declines, because she feels she is impure due to the affair with her so-called cousin. But at length he convinces her and they marry. When she tells him the truth about her former life, he is offended and leaves her. She decides to start farm working again and leads a pretty rough life until her former lover finds her again and takes her in. Finally her husband realizes his mistakes and goes to find her only to find her as the mistress of another. Things come to a point and unhappy endings ensue. 

As I said above, the story was definitely better than I remembered it, but I still found it quite longwinded. 100 pages could easily have been cut, without affecting the plot too much. Tess spends oodles of time discussing with herself whether or not she ought to tell her new lover about her old affair, and she goes back and forth an infuriating number of times. Descriptions of the countryside and the people inhabiting it are also quite longwinded, sometimes. 

I found all the characters infuriating. Tess’ father was the typical lazy old man who considers himself too high in society to work, but doesn't mind his wife and kids grubbing it to feed him. Tess’ mother was naive and selfish and depended on Tess to take care of the family, when that was supposed to be her job. Tess herself was my favorite character, but she was a bit too complacent for my taste. I would have liked to see her stand up to her parents a bit more, instead of just going where they sent her. Her so-called cousin is a rake, then he becomes a preacher, but one look at Tess and he becomes a rake again. That seemed a bit too extreme for me. Is it really possible to go to such extremes and back again without finding a middle way? Tess’ husband, Angel, seems to be all that is good and true, until push comes to shove. When they are married he makes a confession very similar to hers, namely that he also had an affair when he was younger. Tess forgives him and tells him about her own affair. He does not forgive her. Instead he goes off in a huff, leaving Tess to provide for herself. Granted, he thinks he has provided for her by leaving her instructions to call on his father, if she is in need, but Tess is too proud to do that, which he realizes when he wants her back. It takes an immense amount of time for him to realize that they ought to be together, and that her infraction was no worse than his. And this really bugged me about him. They had done pretty much the same thing, but while he expected to be forgiven, he was not ready to forgive her. And it always seems that the woman comes out the worst in these situations. A man is forgiven for mistakes in his youth, while a woman, too young to know anything, is severely punished for the same mistakes. 

I gave this book 2,5 stars on Goodreads. 

Is it still a classic to me

While I do think that this was longwinded and a bit boring at times, I do think it serves to show the double standards of society. And you might say that this was written over a hundred years ago, and society has changed. It certainly has, but not enough. The same double standard applies today. A man with many sexual partners is a stud, he is admired and respected, while a woman with the same number of partners (or less) is a slut. I think this book raises awareness of the unfairness of that double standard, so I would definitely consider it relevant today still. 

All facts from Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Hardy