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A review by alisa_finch
Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
5.0
This is not an easy read. Not because of the language or subtext, but because of what happens to Tess, a girl 'in love with her own ruin'. And to say I enjoyed this book would be wrong - I am not a sadist. But I loved Tess, as if she were my own child. I feel as if I raised her, because no one else was there to do so, and watching her character blossom in the face of such adversity filled me with so much admiration. I suppose that is what makes the penultimate chapter so powerful: "I am ready".
This novel truly sheds a painfully bright light into the mind-set of Victorian England - a rejection of romanticism if I ever saw one:
- Her beauty becomes her liability rather than an asset.
- The oppressive hand of Victorian society - she is not free to follow her heart without the guilt of a past that she played no part in and tradition that she must adhere to
- Everything you want is right in front of you, and it’s the subjugation of society that blinds you to it or forbids you from it
- History and medieval legend, Pagan and Christian references are consistently interwoven.
- The only way the dream can become real is through death, which itself makes the dream impossible
- Extremely dense and multidimensional, it is almost a Shakespearian blend of bleak anti-romantic vision and genuine tragedy
Tess has been a breath of fresh air in my literary choices lately. It is such a tragic, heartbreaking story, because tragedy isn't caused by her: it was simply just her fate.
Quotes:
- ‘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.’
- ‘The pair were, in truth, but the ashes of their former fires.’
- 'With these natures, corporeal presence is something less appealing than corporeal absence; the latter creating an ideal presence that conveniently drops the defects of the real.’
- ‘In considering what Tess was not, he overlooked what she was, and forgot that the defective can be more than the entire.’
- ‘The greater the sinner, the greater the saint’
This novel truly sheds a painfully bright light into the mind-set of Victorian England - a rejection of romanticism if I ever saw one:
- Her beauty becomes her liability rather than an asset.
- The oppressive hand of Victorian society - she is not free to follow her heart without the guilt of a past that she played no part in and tradition that she must adhere to
- Everything you want is right in front of you, and it’s the subjugation of society that blinds you to it or forbids you from it
- History and medieval legend, Pagan and Christian references are consistently interwoven.
- The only way the dream can become real is through death, which itself makes the dream impossible
- Extremely dense and multidimensional, it is almost a Shakespearian blend of bleak anti-romantic vision and genuine tragedy
Tess has been a breath of fresh air in my literary choices lately. It is such a tragic, heartbreaking story, because tragedy isn't caused by her: it was simply just her fate.
Quotes:
- ‘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.’
- ‘The pair were, in truth, but the ashes of their former fires.’
- 'With these natures, corporeal presence is something less appealing than corporeal absence; the latter creating an ideal presence that conveniently drops the defects of the real.’
- ‘In considering what Tess was not, he overlooked what she was, and forgot that the defective can be more than the entire.’
- ‘The greater the sinner, the greater the saint’