Penguin Classics – Tess of the D’Urbervilles (Paperback)

The Penguin English Library Edition ofTess ofthe D’Urbervillesby Thomas Hardy

“I would be content, ay, glad, to live with you as your servant, if Imay not as your wife; so that I could only be near you, and get glimpses ofyou, and think of you as mine … I long for only one thing in heaven or earthor under the earth, to meet you, my own dear! Come to me – come to me, and saveme from what threatens me!”

When Tess Durbeyfield is driven by family poverty to claim kinship with thewealthy D’Urbervilles and seek a portion of their family fortune, meeting her’cousin’ Alec proves to be her downfall. A very different man, Angel Clare,seems to offer her love and salvation, but Tess must choose whether to revealher past or remain silent in the hope of a peaceful future. With its sensitivedepiction of the wronged Tess and powerful criticism of socialconvention,Tess of the D’Urbervillesis one of the mostmoving and poetic of Hardy’s novels.

The Penguin English Library – 100 editions of the best fiction in English, fromthe eighteenth century and the very first novels to the beginning of the FirstWorld War.

About the Author

Thomas Hardy was born in Dorset in 1840 and became anapprentice architect at the age of sixteen. He spent his twenties in London,where he wrote his first poems. In 1867 Hardy returned to his native Dorset,whose rugged landscape was a great source of inspiration for his writing.Between 1871 and 1897 he wrote fourteen novels, includingTess of theD’UrbervillesandJude the Obscure. This final work wasreceived savagely; thereafter Hardy turned away from novels and spent the lastthirty year of his life focusing on poetry. He died in 1928.