All Formats & Editions

The text is fully annotated and includes a separate table of contents for the novel to assist readers in locating specific episodes or passages.

Hardy's hand-drawn map of Wessex and the manuscript title page for the first edition of his novel are also included.

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Part of Penguin's beautiful hardback Clothbound Classics series, designed by the award-winning Coralie Bickford-Smith, these delectable and collectible editions are bound in high-quality colourful, tactile cloth with foil stamped into the design. When Tess Durbeyfield is driven... Read Full Overview

An intimate portrait of a woman, one of literature's most admirable and tragic heroines... Tess Durbeyfield knows what it is to work hard and expect little. But her life is about to veer from the path trod by her mother and grandmother. When her ne'er-do-well father learns that... Read Full Overview

Introduction and Notes by Michael Irwin, Professor of English Literature, University of Kent at Canterbury. Set in Hardy's Wessex, Tess is a moving novel of hypocrisy and double standards. Its challenging sub-title, A Pure Woman, infuriated critics when the book was first published... Read Full Overview

Set in Hardy's Wessex, Tess is a moving novel of hypocrisy and double standards. Its challenging sub-title, A Pure Woman, infuriated critics when the book was first published in 1891, and it was condemned as immoral and pessimistic.

It tells of Tess Durbeyfield, the... Read Full Overview

Young Tess Durbeyfield attempts to restore her family's fortunes by claiming their connection with the aristocratic d'Urbervilles. But Alec d'Urberville is a rich wastrel who seduces her and makes her life miserable. When Tess meets Angel Clare, she is offered true love and happiness,... Read Full Overview

Tess of the d'Urbervilles: A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented is a novel by Thomas Hardy. It initially appeared in a censored and serialised version, published by the British illustrated newspaper The Graphic in 1891[1] and in book form in 1892. Though now considered a major nineteenth-century... Read Full Overview

Tess of the d'Urbervilles tells the story of a country girl descended from a noble line who is seduced and left pregnant. After her baby dies, she meets a man who abandons her on their wedding night when she confesses her past. Desperate, she returns to her... Read Full Overview