Enough that in the present case, as in millions, it was not the two halves of a perfect whole that confronted each other at the perfect moment part and counterpart wandered independently about the earth in the stupidest manner for a while, till the late time came. We may wonder whether at the acme and summit of the human progress these anachronisms will be corrected by a finer intuition, a close interaction of the social machinery than that which now jolts us round and along but such completeness is not to be prophesied, or even conceived as possible. Nature does not often say 'See!' to her poor creature at a time when seeing can lead to happy doing or reply 'Here!' to a body's cry of 'Where?' till the hide-and-seek has become an irksome, outworn game. In addressing the double standards of the time, Hardy’s masterly evocation of a world which we have lost, provides one of the most compelling stories in the canon of English literature, whose appeal today defies the judgement of Hardy’s contemporary critics.“In the ill-judged execution of the well-judged plan of things the call seldom produces the comer, the man to love rarely coincides with the hour for loving. It explores Tess's relationships with two very different men, her struggle against the social mores of the rural Victorian world which she inhabits and the hypocrisy of the age.
In her search for respectability her fortunes fluctuate wildly, and the story assumes the proportions of a Greek tragedy. It tells of Tess Durbeyfield, the daughter of a poor and dissipated villager, who learns that she may be descended from the ancient family of d'Urbeville.
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.
Set in Hardy's Wessex, Tess is a moving novel of hypocrisy and double standards.
Introduction and Notes by Michael Irwin, Professor of English Literature, University of Kent at Canterbury.
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