welcome to...TESS OF THE DECEMBERVILLES.and welcome back to another installment of project long classics, in which i spend a month reading an intimidating work from the literary canon mostly as an excuse to a) make bad title puns and b) excuse my penguin clothbound addiction.tess was my childhood family dog's name so i'm sure i'll be able to relate to this one.this has 59 "chapters" (normal) divided into 7 "phases" (why), so i'll read 2 chapters a day. ish. (also, all of these reviews contain sp...

That's it there needs to be a new genre - Dark Classics! Going so much against the grain of the times, this is the story of Tess Durbeyfield trying to live her life in 19th century England; eldest daughter to aspirational educated rural working class parents with their sights on their wealthier 'family' the D'Urberville's. With family tragedies, deaths, sexual harassment and assault(!), gender inequality, eschewed religious values and more, Tess maintains a pretty clear idea of her wants, needs ...

A beautiful, compelling, at times frustrating story. Hardy tackles taboos and consequences in the Victorian era. I admire the symbolism and far-reaching themes.
4.5 stars rounded up to 5.

There is a strong debate regarding the introduction of sex education in schools in Romania. I would make all the people opposing this measure read this book. Even if it was written a few centuries ago, not much has change in certain places and families. Widespread ignorance regarding basic knowledge of the reproductive apparatus and of the way babies are made should be our main concern. Not the idiotic fear that all children will turn gay (lesbians are ok) or men will have children or whatever. ...

Oh, my Lord, what a book!When you open a book, it is rare not only to feel from the first pages that you will like a good wine with a high but also to discover a great author to whom you will have the pleasure of returning.Double happiness that I have just experienced with "Tess d'Urberville," of a tasty richness: tragedy, social novel, painful romance, a novel of terror, psychological novel, political novel also on the condition of women, "Tess" is all of these at the same time.The narration is...

A truly tragic tale of the suffocating, detrimental Victorian morality in its most excessive form, and a pertinent read on International Women's Day. Hardy's use of language and the pace of the novel were enrapturing.

Dear, Tess of the D’UrbervillesI’m writing you this letter because you pissed me off. I’m angry, Tess. I’ve got a lot to say to you, and I want you to hear it. I will warn you though; I’m not holding anything back. We’re going to talk about everything, everything that happens in your life from beginning to end. How could you be so silly? How could you be so hapless and so helpless? Why do you seem to be an ill-fated walking disaster of doom trodden woe? Why, oh why, did you never learn anything?...

Tess of the d'Urbervilles is not a feel-good book, which sharply sets it apart from the other 19th century novels about young women (think Pride and Prejudice and Jane Eyre, for instance). No, it's sad and depressing to the point where it almost makes me angry. Because poor Tess, prone to making choices that are invariably the worst for her, just cannot catch a break. Because it's like she has majorly pissed off some higher power(s) that be and they are taking revenge, giving her the most rotten...

I hated this passionately, which is perhaps unfair, as the book is really quite admirable for tackling the subject of double standards applied to male and female sexual behaviour. But this is one of the most depressing, pointless novels I’ve ever read in my life. I have loathed this book for ten years and I will not stop.

there will probably be spoilers here. i will possibly rant. if you don't know what happens in tess, it is better not to read this review, although, frankly, to my way of thinking, hardy has so many superior novels, stories, poems, that you would be better served just avoiding this one and going on to one of the great ones like jude or mayor of casterbridge instead. but there is something sneaking up in me - a bubblingly vague feeling of well-wishing for poor doomed tess, that makes me think i mi...