Reading 1001 discussion

read 2013
This book by Hardy comes to me highly recommended by others and it lived up to its high recommendation. Tess Durbeyfield is a tragic heroine, Angel Clare is maddening. Men readily abuse this young woman who starts out so sweet and ends so tragically. Tess's spirit is slowly destroyed by the events until the final moment of passion. I am thankful that I knew nothing about this book going in to it and therefore I am not going to say anything here. Even though this book is set in the 1800s, I felt that it was still very relevant today, though I would hope women would not be this self sacrificing. Hardy wrote this novel, a social commentary on the lives of nineteenth century English Women. Hardy is an excellent author. His characters are well developed. His writing is full of beauty and skill. This is the second book I have read by him and exceeded Jude the Obscure which I also enjoyed.

This is a re-read for me and it is one of the few books where I had a complete change of heart. I read it in my mid-teens and the character of Tess annoyed me. Also, everything that happened to her happened to her because she was pretty. It put me off successfully reading Hardy for over 10 years as I tried at least twice and tried with this book.

However, this time round I was gripped from the start. I really appreciated how beautiful written this was, the descriptions of the setting and how they reflected the story and what was happening to Tess.

Hardy uses Tess and her relationships with two men to highlight the disparities faced by women in Victorian society; and the awful effects of rigidly applied moral standards against them.

Yes, it is Victorian and of its time in the sense that innocence defeats the "master" obsessed with power and control over Tess, and the traditional Victorian morality which Angel Clare succumbs to, even while he feels himself to be more "modern". But in its presentation of the idea what women are more than vaginas, that rape victims can still be worthwhile as people and not defined by that incident alone, and that both women and the working class have stories to be told, this book is vitally important. Alec D'Urberville ends up dead and Angel Clare ends up as an insignificant, shallow man facing a highly dubious future with Tess's sister. And Tess transcends them both.

I tend to love Hardy and this one was no exception. He really is the master of writing these tragedies that are out of the hands of the protagonists: the conflict on the highest level is person vs society and circumstance rather than just against other people. The antagonists often fall into the position of exerting their societal power and privilege over others.

In this one, Tess fights against the abuse of the landed gentry, just hoping to survive through honest work without being disgraced. Inevitably, she is, but Hardy makes the case that a 'disgraced; woman can be moral and the victim of other transgressions. Which, is pretty progressive for the time.

She also seems to represent a sense of 'good honest work' of the rural working class that is encroached on by the wealthy and the industrial world.

The ending really got me in the heartstrings. 4 stars.