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kandicez 's review for:
Tess of the D'Urbervilles
by Thomas Hardy
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.