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3.68 AVERAGE
3.68 AVERAGE
Una historia maravillosa. Pobre Tess, siempre en las garras de una sociedad retrógrada por un error inconsciente. Me ha impresionado el final y a la vez me ha entristecido.
dark
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Content Warnings
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Sexism, Sexual harassment
Moderate: Murder, Abandonment
Minor: Child death, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Stalking, Death of parent
dark
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Winding story of romance that ends abruptly.
I have a great admiration for this novel. Hardy doesn’t hold back with this one; it’s edgy, it’s dark and it’s merciless. In this allegorical tale, Tess is your loveable scapegoat, the Christ-figure if you will, that evokes our inmost pity. All she innocently desires is to do the right thing, and we martyr her because we won’t compromise our "armoured" regulations. Yes, Hardy goes way over the top here, and some may criticize him as overly romantic, but considering he was working within the confines of Victorian censorship and he didn't have much choice, this novel was ground-breaking for cleverly breaking the rules.
As a feminist, I consider this novel seminal to the movement in the late 19th century, much like I consider Huckleberry Finn seminal to racial awareness of the same period. They may not sound robust enough to our modern ears, but they were amongst the ideas that got the gears turning in the first place.
As a feminist, I consider this novel seminal to the movement in the late 19th century, much like I consider Huckleberry Finn seminal to racial awareness of the same period. They may not sound robust enough to our modern ears, but they were amongst the ideas that got the gears turning in the first place.
challenging
dark
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
challenging
emotional
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
informative
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Incredibly tragic and moving, with very compelling characters, and beautifully written. Full of powerful images which will stick with me. The themes of religion, morality, agriculture and class are so interesting that I would like to study this properly.
reflective
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
Tess of the d'Urbervilles: A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented by Thomas Hardy 4.5
Tess Durbeyfield sent off by her 'noble' tippler father and lightminded mother to ingratiate herself to "Coz" Alec d'Urberville. Societal and familial pressures cause judgement, non-disclosure.and more repercussions.
• "Explanatory Note to the First Edition The main portion of the following story appeared—with slight modifications—in The Graphic newspaper; other chapters, more especially addressed to adult readers, in the Fortnightly Review and the National Observer, as episodic sketches."
Tess Durbeyfield sent off by her 'noble' tippler father and lightminded mother to ingratiate herself to "Coz" Alec d'Urberville. Societal and familial pressures cause judgement, non-disclosure.and more repercussions.
• "Explanatory Note to the First Edition The main portion of the following story appeared—with slight modifications—in The Graphic newspaper; other chapters, more especially addressed to adult readers, in the Fortnightly Review and the National Observer, as episodic sketches."
• To ‘Sir John’ Jack Durbeyfield, "“At first I resolved not to disturb you with such a useless piece of information,” said (Parson Tringham). “However, our impulses are too strong for our judgement sometimes."" Putting on airs, in his cups.
• "Ideal and real clashed slightly" "Tess Durbeyfield at this time of her life was a mere vessel of emotion untinctured by experience."
• "“But do let her go, Jacky,” coaxed his poor witless wife. “(shady Alec d'Urberville)'s struck wi’ her—you can see that. He called her Coz! He’ll marry her, most likely, and make a lady of her; and then she’ll be what her forefathers was.” John Durbeyfield had more conceit than energy or health, and this supposition was pleasant to him."
• "Being mentally older than her mother she did not regard Mrs. (Joan) Durbeyfield’s matrimonial hopes for her in a serious aspect for a moment. The lightminded woman had been discovering good matches for her daughter almost from the year of her birth." "simple-souled vanity."
• "Then she put upon her the white frock that Tess had worn at the club-walking, the airy fullness of which, supplementing her enlarged coiffure, imparted to her developing figure an amplitude which belied her age, and might cause her to be estimated as a woman when she was not much more than a child."
• "“By experience,” says Roger Ascham, “we find out a short way by a long wandering.”"
• "But all the while she was making a distinction where there was no difference."
• Affectuating the adoring ladies' dry crossing, Angel Clare's boots, and his carried load, were soused. My gutter mind surely, but chapter XXIV starts mere words later: "Amid the oozing fatness and warm ferments of the Froom Vale, at a season when the rush of juices could almost be heard below the hiss of fertilization, it was impossible that the most fanciful love should not grow passionate. The ready bosoms existing there were impregnated by their surroundings."
• "Perfect, he, as a lover, might have called them offhand. But no—they were not perfect. And it was the touch of the imperfect upon the would-be perfect that gave the sweetness, because it was that which gave the humanity." "“Well, I have betrayed my feeling, Tess, at last,” said he, with a curious sigh of desperation, signifying unconsciously that his heart had outrun his judgement. “That I—love you dearly and truly I need not say."
• "How then should he look upon her as of less consequence than himself; as a pretty trifle to caress and grow weary of;"
• Tess finally says yes to marriage proposal from her Angel.
• Angel Clare, "Moreover, his affection itself was less fire than radiance, and, with regard to the other sex, when he ceased to believe he ceased to follow: contrasting in this with many impressionable natures, who remain sensuously infatuated with what they intellectually despise."
• "her moral value having to be reckoned not by achievement but by tendency. Moreover, the figure near at hand suffers on such occasion, because it shows up its sorriness without shade; while vague figures afar off are honoured, in that their distance makes artistic virtues of their stains. In considering what Tess was not, he overlooked what she was, and forgot that the defective can be more than the entire."
• "Izz spoke with a magnanimous abandonment of herself to the situation; she could not be—no woman with a heart bigger than a hazelnut could be—antagonistic to Tess in her presence, the influence which she exercised over those of her own sex being of a warmth and strength quite unusual, curiously overpowering the less worthy feminine feelings of spite and rivalry."
• Angel Clare and ’Liza-Lu Durbeyfield walk away from a black flag after Tess' execution.
• "Ideal and real clashed slightly" "Tess Durbeyfield at this time of her life was a mere vessel of emotion untinctured by experience."
• "“But do let her go, Jacky,” coaxed his poor witless wife. “(shady Alec d'Urberville)'s struck wi’ her—you can see that. He called her Coz! He’ll marry her, most likely, and make a lady of her; and then she’ll be what her forefathers was.” John Durbeyfield had more conceit than energy or health, and this supposition was pleasant to him."
• "Being mentally older than her mother she did not regard Mrs. (Joan) Durbeyfield’s matrimonial hopes for her in a serious aspect for a moment. The lightminded woman had been discovering good matches for her daughter almost from the year of her birth." "simple-souled vanity."
• "Then she put upon her the white frock that Tess had worn at the club-walking, the airy fullness of which, supplementing her enlarged coiffure, imparted to her developing figure an amplitude which belied her age, and might cause her to be estimated as a woman when she was not much more than a child."
• "“By experience,” says Roger Ascham, “we find out a short way by a long wandering.”"
• "But all the while she was making a distinction where there was no difference."
• Affectuating the adoring ladies' dry crossing, Angel Clare's boots, and his carried load, were soused. My gutter mind surely, but chapter XXIV starts mere words later: "Amid the oozing fatness and warm ferments of the Froom Vale, at a season when the rush of juices could almost be heard below the hiss of fertilization, it was impossible that the most fanciful love should not grow passionate. The ready bosoms existing there were impregnated by their surroundings."
• "Perfect, he, as a lover, might have called them offhand. But no—they were not perfect. And it was the touch of the imperfect upon the would-be perfect that gave the sweetness, because it was that which gave the humanity." "“Well, I have betrayed my feeling, Tess, at last,” said he, with a curious sigh of desperation, signifying unconsciously that his heart had outrun his judgement. “That I—love you dearly and truly I need not say."
• "How then should he look upon her as of less consequence than himself; as a pretty trifle to caress and grow weary of;"
• Tess finally says yes to marriage proposal from her Angel.
• Angel Clare, "Moreover, his affection itself was less fire than radiance, and, with regard to the other sex, when he ceased to believe he ceased to follow: contrasting in this with many impressionable natures, who remain sensuously infatuated with what they intellectually despise."
• "her moral value having to be reckoned not by achievement but by tendency. Moreover, the figure near at hand suffers on such occasion, because it shows up its sorriness without shade; while vague figures afar off are honoured, in that their distance makes artistic virtues of their stains. In considering what Tess was not, he overlooked what she was, and forgot that the defective can be more than the entire."
• "Izz spoke with a magnanimous abandonment of herself to the situation; she could not be—no woman with a heart bigger than a hazelnut could be—antagonistic to Tess in her presence, the influence which she exercised over those of her own sex being of a warmth and strength quite unusual, curiously overpowering the less worthy feminine feelings of spite and rivalry."
• Angel Clare and ’Liza-Lu Durbeyfield walk away from a black flag after Tess' execution.