Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas HardyMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Suffering. Heartbreak. Injustice. Good grief. Never have I been so glad to enter this world in the 20th Century (and not sooner)! But, poor, poor Tess D’Urberville. Her extremes of mortification and deprivation, which rake at her relentlessly and which spring from those villainous Victorian affectations – well, it bordered on the oppressive, it truly did. Has anyone ever been as unlucky as Tess D’Urberville?
Only the majestic parade of elaborate, spotless sentences kept me reading. Thomas Hardy did not just write. He ennobled his reader with word monuments - chapter after celestial chapter, lines and lines of magnificently turned-out sentences.
Throughout the story, dread is ever-present, lurking in every small turn of events, and we know, we just know, as we read on, that there will be, there must be, a limit to Tess’s forbearance. Hardy seems to luxuriate in the misery and inequity. Readers are made uncomfortable by Tess’s torments. Of course, this is no accident. His message on the abuses of the era is loud and clear.
My mind has been steeped in such bounty of lovely language, that I can’t resent Hardy for dispatching so many hours of doom and gloom. It is a very BIG story and a great one, too, although you might need to medicate with some chocolate when done.
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