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3.68 AVERAGE
3.68 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
dark
emotional
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Heart wrenching but at the same time very beautiful. The author did a great job on commenting on Victorian society and it’s hypocrisy, although you can see that he also influenced by what society deems is right behavior or wrong behavior.
I quite liked this book, I love the era and Hardy's style. The story of Tess is touching and engaging.
Heartbreaking and tragic; a love story doomed from the very beginning.
A great, but ultimately frustrating read. It's hard to get into the Victorian mindset for this book and it's even harder not to get angry at the hypocrisy of their set of morals. The ending parts were so unexpected and strange that I was completely caught off-guard.
I thought I'd be annoyed by the protagonist, Tess, because of her unwavering faith in Angel, but she was mostly likable because of the way she preserved in such f-ed up circumstances. I'm glad I read this when I did because if I had read it in high school, I would have been so mad at how things turned out.
I thought I'd be annoyed by the protagonist, Tess, because of her unwavering faith in Angel, but she was mostly likable because of the way she preserved in such f-ed up circumstances. I'm glad I read this when I did because if I had read it in high school, I would have been so mad at how things turned out.
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
J’ai plutôt apprécié ce livre, même si pendant une bonne partie (le milieu je dirais), je peinais à rester accrochée à l’histoire. Le passage du baptême de Sorrow, et le rythme des derniers chapitres m’ont convaincue à lui mettre 3 étoiles.
Je pense pouvoir l’apprécier un peu plus si jamais un jour je me motive à le relire, mais cette fois-ci, je ne me sentais pas particulièrement intéressée !
2021 -
I was beyond thrilled when a RL movie/book to which I belong decided to do this. It's always been a favorite of mine. First, because I was a child of the 70s - 80s when HBO had maybe five movies a month played on repeat. I must have watched this with my cousins dozens of times. I mean the Polanski / Kinski version. Then when I finally read it in my teens I was even more enamored with poor, poor Tess.
Hardy is depressing. No one can say otherwise, with the possible exception of [b:Far From the Madding Crowd|31463|Far From the Madding Crowd|Thomas Hardy|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1388279695l/31463._SY75_.jpg|914540]. Tess is no different. Tess is a good, practical girl who is saddled with bad parents, six siblings and a life of poverty. When a local priest gives her father the grand illusion of having descended from nobility, Tess stands no chance in life. Tess feels responsibility where her parents feel none. Tess, who always does as bid, and with as much heart as she can, never seems to be treated this way in turn.
I won't rehash the plot but I have to believe that Hardy was pointing out the hypocrisy of Victorian England. A man could sow wild oats and be a better husband for it. A woman simply could not. She was a ruin. And a woman who was an innocent and taken advantage of was no less so. Possibly more, since she also has her own guilt and self-loathing to warm her at night. Religion was such a large part of their world, that not only were these women letting down their families and themselves, but also God.
Tess is one of those rare spirits who finds her other half early in life. And she could have been happy if things had worked out differently. If she had married him early, but again, Hardy is pointing out hypocrisy. Tess's love, Angel Clare, does love Tess, but he loves a Tess that does not exist. Her beauty, grace, poise, intelligence and kindness exist, but Angel still wants to reform Tess in his image. He wants a proper farmer's wife, but one with the airs of a Vicar's. He wants to mold Tess to what he and his family believe his wife should be. This makes me question if Tess could have been happy as Mrs. Clare even if Angel has pursued and won her after that first May Day Dance. I think not. He would have been unsatisfied. Our Tess would have felt less than. Still, no one would have been truly happy.
Hardy is always showing how elusive happiness is. How the further we get from nature and what is natural, the further we are from satisfaction. Love cannot be earned. Love cannot be taught. But love is truly an action. An action that grows from constant repetition. Act lovingly and you will love. Act lovingly and you will be loved. Those Victorians were never satisfied enough to get to the actual action it seems.
2005 -
This is one my all time favorite books. It's so sad, unfair, and painful, but you can't stop reading. At times you want to shake Tess and just scream in her face to "Wake up", but then you remember WHEN she is, and realize there's really nothing else she can do. There is no tied-with-a-bow happy ending, and that's perfect. There would have been no possibility of that when Tess was alive, and the fact that Hardy sticks to that reality makes it so touching. Hardy never has a problem with tragedy, but Tess is his best and most believable, I think.
This is also one of the very few movie adaptations I think really does the book proud. I had put off seeing the movie because I loved the book so much, but on every re-read after seeing the movie Kinski WAS Tess for me. That's saying a lot.
I was beyond thrilled when a RL movie/book to which I belong decided to do this. It's always been a favorite of mine. First, because I was a child of the 70s - 80s when HBO had maybe five movies a month played on repeat. I must have watched this with my cousins dozens of times. I mean the Polanski / Kinski version. Then when I finally read it in my teens I was even more enamored with poor, poor Tess.
Hardy is depressing. No one can say otherwise, with the possible exception of [b:Far From the Madding Crowd|31463|Far From the Madding Crowd|Thomas Hardy|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1388279695l/31463._SY75_.jpg|914540]. Tess is no different. Tess is a good, practical girl who is saddled with bad parents, six siblings and a life of poverty. When a local priest gives her father the grand illusion of having descended from nobility, Tess stands no chance in life. Tess feels responsibility where her parents feel none. Tess, who always does as bid, and with as much heart as she can, never seems to be treated this way in turn.
I won't rehash the plot but I have to believe that Hardy was pointing out the hypocrisy of Victorian England. A man could sow wild oats and be a better husband for it. A woman simply could not. She was a ruin. And a woman who was an innocent and taken advantage of was no less so. Possibly more, since she also has her own guilt and self-loathing to warm her at night. Religion was such a large part of their world, that not only were these women letting down their families and themselves, but also God.
Tess is one of those rare spirits who finds her other half early in life. And she could have been happy if things had worked out differently. If she had married him early, but again, Hardy is pointing out hypocrisy. Tess's love, Angel Clare, does love Tess, but he loves a Tess that does not exist. Her beauty, grace, poise, intelligence and kindness exist, but Angel still wants to reform Tess in his image. He wants a proper farmer's wife, but one with the airs of a Vicar's. He wants to mold Tess to what he and his family believe his wife should be. This makes me question if Tess could have been happy as Mrs. Clare even if Angel has pursued and won her after that first May Day Dance. I think not. He would have been unsatisfied. Our Tess would have felt less than. Still, no one would have been truly happy.
Hardy is always showing how elusive happiness is. How the further we get from nature and what is natural, the further we are from satisfaction. Love cannot be earned. Love cannot be taught. But love is truly an action. An action that grows from constant repetition. Act lovingly and you will love. Act lovingly and you will be loved. Those Victorians were never satisfied enough to get to the actual action it seems.
2005 -
This is one my all time favorite books. It's so sad, unfair, and painful, but you can't stop reading. At times you want to shake Tess and just scream in her face to "Wake up", but then you remember WHEN she is, and realize there's really nothing else she can do. There is no tied-with-a-bow happy ending, and that's perfect. There would have been no possibility of that when Tess was alive, and the fact that Hardy sticks to that reality makes it so touching. Hardy never has a problem with tragedy, but Tess is his best and most believable, I think.
This is also one of the very few movie adaptations I think really does the book proud. I had put off seeing the movie because I loved the book so much, but on every re-read after seeing the movie Kinski WAS Tess for me. That's saying a lot.
"Why didn't you tell me there was danger in men folk? Why didn't you warn me? Ladies no what to fend hands against, because they read novels that tell them of these tricks"
I opened this book with so much expectation and excitement and of course it delivered. The life of Tess Durbeyfield is full. Full in equal measures... of love and loss, profound happiness and sickening pain. But like all woman she wasn't built to break. Like all of us she bent, she shifted, she changed but she didn't break.
Fun Fact : this book is over 120 years old. A classic if ever there was one, Hello Book Buddies
I opened this book with so much expectation and excitement and of course it delivered. The life of Tess Durbeyfield is full. Full in equal measures... of love and loss, profound happiness and sickening pain. But like all woman she wasn't built to break. Like all of us she bent, she shifted, she changed but she didn't break.
Fun Fact : this book is over 120 years old. A classic if ever there was one, Hello Book Buddies