The ne'er-do-well sire of a starving brood suddenly discovers a family connection to the aristocracy, and his selfish scheme to capitalize on their wealth sets a fateful plot in motion. Jack Durbeyfield dispatches his gentle daughter Tess to the home of their noble kin, anticipating a lucrative match between the lovely girl and a titled cousin. Innocent Tess finds the path of the d'Urberville estate paved with ruin in this gripping tale of the inevitability of fate and the tragic nature of existence.Subtitled "A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented, " Thomas Hardy's sympathetic portrait of a blameless young woman's destruction first appeared in 1891. Its powerful indictment of Victorian hypocrisy, along with its unconventional focus on the rural lower class and its direct treatment of sexuality and religion, raised a ferocious public outcry. "Tess of the D'Ubervilles" is Hardy's penultimate novel; the pressures of critical infamy shortly afterward drove the author to abandon the genre in favor of poetry. Like his fictional heroine, the artist fell victim to a rigidly oppressive moral code.Today, "Tess" is regarded as Hardy's masterpiece, embodying all of the most profoundly moving elements of its creator's dark vision. No perspective on 19th-century fiction is complete without a consideration of this compelling tale, now available in an inexpensive and high-quality edition.
HARDY THOMAS
Thomas Hardy fue un novelista y poeta inglés nacido el 2 de junio de 1840 en Higher Bockhampton, Dorset. Su obra se caracteriza por el realismo y el naturalismo, con una fuerte crítica a la sociedad victoriana y una exploración de la lucha entre el destino y la voluntad humana.
Entre sus novelas más destacadas se encuentran Lejos del mundanal ruido 1874 , El alcalde de Casterbridge 1886 , Tess, la de los d'Urberville 1891 y Jude el oscuro 1895 . Sus personajes suelen enfrentarse a circunstancias sociales opresivas y a fuerzas incontrolables de la naturaleza.
Aunque Hardy se consideraba principalmente poeta, su primera colección de poesía no fue publicada hasta 1898. Su estilo influyó en escritores posteriores como Ezra Pound y W. H. Auden. Falleció el 11 de enero de 1928 en Dorchester, y su legado sigue siendo fundamental en la literatura inglesa.
