Thomas Hardy's Tess of the d'Urbervilles

Scott McEathron is Associate Professor of English at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale.

• Introduction 1: Contexts, Contextual Overview, Chronology, Contemporary Documents Thomas Hardy, ‘Candour in English Fiction’ (1890) Thomas Hardy, excerpt ; From serialized version of Tess of the d’Urbervilles (1891) Thomas Hardy, Selection of Poems Tess’s Lament We Field-Women The Well-Beloved The Ruined Maid At a Hasty Wedding A Hurried Meeting The Turnip-Hoer Winter in Durnover Field Doom and She The Lacking Sense Richard Jeffries, ‘The Labourer’s Daily Life’, Fraser’s Magazine (1874) Richard Jeffries, ‘Field-Faring Women’, Fraser’s Magazine (1875) Anon., ‘The Virgin Forest [of Brazil]’, Bentley’s Miscellany (1864) James Fergusson, ‘Stonehenge’, Quarterly Review (1860) 2: Interpretations Critical History Early Critical Reception; From Clementina Black, Illustrated London News (1892); From Anon., Athenaeum (1892); From R. H. Hutton, Spectator (1892); From Margaret Oliphant, Blackwood’s Magazine (1892); From Mowbray Morris, ‘Culture and Anarchy’, Quarterly Review (1892) Modern Criticism The Character of Tess; From Irving Howe, Thomas Hardy (1967); From Michael Millgate, Thomas Hardy: His Career as a Novelist (1971); From Penelope Vigar, The Novels of Thomas Hardy: Illusion and Reality (1974); From Mary Jacobus, ‘Tess’s Purity’, Essays in Criticism (1976); From John Bayley, An Essay on Hardy (1978); From Janet Freeman, ‘Ways of Looking at Tess’, Studies in Philology (1982); From Simon Gatrell, Thomas Hardy and the Proper Study of Mankind (1993); From Peter Widdowson, ‘ “Moments of Vision”: Postmodernising Tess of the d’Urbervilles’ (1994) Hardy’s Philosophical Views; From Dorothy Van Ghent, The English Novel: Form and Function (1953); From Tony Tanner, ‘Colour and Movement in Hardy’s Tess of the d’Urbervilles’ (1968); From F. B. Pinion, Hardy the Writer (1990) Tess and Sexuality; From Penny Boumelha, Thomas Hardy and Women: Sexual Ideology and Narrative Form (1982); From Kristin Brady, ‘Tess and Alec: Rape or Seduction?’ (1986); From James Kincaid, ‘ “You did not come”: Absence, Death and Eroticism in Tess’ (1990); From William A. Davis, Jr, ‘The Rape of Tess: Hardy, English Law, and the Case for Sexual Assault’ (1997); From Lisa Sternlieb, ‘ “Three Leahs to Get One Rachel”: Redundant Women in Tess of the d’Urbervilles’ (2000) Hardy on Nature and Society; From David Lodge, The Language of Fiction: Essays in Criticism and Verbal Analysis of the English Novel (1967); From Merryn Williams, Thomas Hardy and Rural England (1972); From Ian Gregor, The Great Web: The Form of Hardy’s Major Fiction (1974); From Bruce Johnson, ‘ “The Perfection of Species” and Hardy’s Tess’ (1977); From Adam Gussow, ‘Dreaming Holmberry-Lipped Tess: Aboriginal Reverie and Spectatorial Desire in Tess of the d’Urbervilles’ (2000) The Work in Performance 3: Key Passages Introduction Key Passages ; From ‘Phase the First: The Maiden’; From Chapter 2: The Village of Marlott, and the May-Day Dance; From Chapter 2: An Early Description of Tess; From Chapter 4: The Death of Prince; From Chapter 5: Discussion of the d’Urberville Lineage; Tess Meets Alec d’Urberville ; From Chapter 11: The Journey through The Chase, and Tess’s Rape; From ‘Phase the Second: Maiden No More’; From Chapter 14: The Midnight Baptism and the Burial of Sorrow; From ‘Phase the Third: The Rally’; From Chapter 18: Introduction of Angel Clare; From Chapter 19: Tess and Angel in the Garden Chapter 20: The Pastoral Interlude at Talbothays; From ‘Phase the Fourth: The Consequence’; From Chapter 34: Angel Confesses his Past; From ‘Phase the Fifth: The Woman Pays’; From Chapter 35: Angel’s Immediate Reaction to Tess’s Confession; From Chapter 42: Initial Description of Flintcomb-Ash Farm ; From ‘Phase the Sixth: The Convert’ Chapter 47: Threshing Scene; Renewal of Alec d’Urberville’s Attentions to Tess; ; From ‘Phase the Seventh: Fulfilment’; From Chapter 55: Description of Sandbourne; From Chapter 55: Angel Presents Himself to Tess ; From Chapter 56: Tess’s Murder of Alec; From Chapters 57 and 58: The Idyll at the Deserted Mansion; From Chapter 58: Tess and Angel at Stonehenge; From Chapter 59: Tess’s Fate, and the Novel’s Closing Paragraphs 4: Further Reading