Tess of the d’Urbervilles

A poor country girl, Tess, is seduced and abandoned by a wealthy young man, then finds love with another who cannot forgive her past, in Hardy’s devastating tragedy of a pure woman destroyed by cruelty, chance, and a merciless social order. Set against the beautiful, indifferent landscape of Wessex, it is a searing protest against the injustices visited upon women and the poor. Controversial on publication for its frankness and sympathy, Tess of the d’Urbervilles is now regarded as one of the greatest novels in English. Heartbreaking and morally powerful, it remains Hardy’s most beloved and shattering portrait of a doomed, blameless heroine.