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3.48k reviews for:
Tessa d'Urberville: Historia kobiety czystej
Róża Czekańska-Heymanowa, Thomas Hardy
3.68 AVERAGE
3.48k reviews for:
Tessa d'Urberville: Historia kobiety czystej
Róża Czekańska-Heymanowa, Thomas Hardy
3.68 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
slow-paced
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
N/A
Forgot how much I hate this book. Need to punch a man in the face to make me feel better
Solid advice from Hardy: angels are assholes and don't trust strange men who may or may not be your family members.
Quite wonderful, but much too long.
Quite wonderful, but much too long.
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
I was recommended this book by pretty much any book search engine you can think of, including Goodreads. I’ve enjoyed many classic novels (such as Jane Eyre and Rebecca) that are, on the surface, similar to this book.
The plot of Tess of the D’Urbervilles is engaging enough. It’s the characters and the writing style that bring down the quality.
Nothing ground breaking takes place, but the pace of the story is relatively good. It’s a romantic misunderstanding that turns dramatic. However, the story was not sophisticated or all that believable.
The biggest detriment to the pace is the writing style. Hardy uses paragraphs upon paragraphs of description where only a sentence would do. He provides too much detail and muses far too poetically on phrases and facts that can be succinctly explained. You think female authors of the period were flowery? In comparison to Hardy, Jane Austen and the Bronte sisters, et al., were basically writing chemistry textbooks.
I also think that the story’s believability was affected by the ineffective characterization. The people didn’t act like real people. Not to dwell on how it made it difficult to relate to their romantic feelings when they didn’t feel very real, I would rather point out that many of their actions were primitive attempts at moving the plot forward to the dramatic, yet lacklustre, conclusion instead of meaningfully developing their personalities.
I could hardly tell the difference between the two main male characters, which takes away from the point of the story. As much as I can’t stand a love triangle, if you’re going to include one, at least give the two love interests unique voices and thought patterns. A difference of religious opinion does not constitute a difference in characterization.
In all: Flat characters, OK plot, painful writing style.
The plot of Tess of the D’Urbervilles is engaging enough. It’s the characters and the writing style that bring down the quality.
Nothing ground breaking takes place, but the pace of the story is relatively good. It’s a romantic misunderstanding that turns dramatic. However, the story was not sophisticated or all that believable.
The biggest detriment to the pace is the writing style. Hardy uses paragraphs upon paragraphs of description where only a sentence would do. He provides too much detail and muses far too poetically on phrases and facts that can be succinctly explained. You think female authors of the period were flowery? In comparison to Hardy, Jane Austen and the Bronte sisters, et al., were basically writing chemistry textbooks.
I also think that the story’s believability was affected by the ineffective characterization. The people didn’t act like real people. Not to dwell on how it made it difficult to relate to their romantic feelings when they didn’t feel very real, I would rather point out that many of their actions were primitive attempts at moving the plot forward to the dramatic, yet lacklustre, conclusion instead of meaningfully developing their personalities.
I could hardly tell the difference between the two main male characters, which takes away from the point of the story. As much as I can’t stand a love triangle, if you’re going to include one, at least give the two love interests unique voices and thought patterns. A difference of religious opinion does not constitute a difference in characterization.
In all: Flat characters, OK plot, painful writing style.
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
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
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child death, Murder
Minor: Rape, Sexual violence