Tess of the d'Urbervilles

Rating:
Summary: A bleak classic short on theme
Review: When John Durbeyfield first discovers that his family is descended from the D'Urbervilles of British aristocracy, it seems like his poor family's key to freedom. He sends his older daughter, Tess, to live with the D'Urbervilles, unaware that the current family of D'Urbervilles are imposters.

At the home of these imposters, Tess is raped by the eldest D'Urberville son, Alec. She flees and gives birth to a child conceived by the rape. The infant dies and Tess buries him in secret.

In an attempt to escape her past and start anew, Tess takes a milkmaid job at Talbothay's Dairy where she meets and falls in love with Angel Clare. Angel is a beautiful man who loves Tess deeply, but when he proposes to her, she is torn between lying to him by omission versus telling him of her past with Alec -- a choice that would likely alienate him in the strict morals of Victorian Britain.

After they are married, Tess breaks down and tells Angel of her shameful past. Angel can't cope with it and leaves Tess penniless to travel to Brazil. When both Angel and Alec return to her, she is faced with the choice between them and the disastrous consequences of her decisions.

Overall, I was disappointed by the lack of theme. The story is just unrelenting bleak, which wouldn't have bothered me except there didn't really seem to be a point to it. A lot of the text is spent repeating things that really didn't need to be repeated, especially in the entire section devoted to the lead-up to Tess agreeing to marry Angel. We knew it was going to happen, so I quickly lost interest in all tension-building that didn't really build any tension.

I guess it might have been about the tragic fate of principled people. Tess is a moral woman, she desires only to be happy -- and both lead her to nothing but tragedy. I realize this was a bit cutting edge in the late 19th century when people wanted their stories to have happy endings no matter what happened in the middle. But explorations on the unfairness of life are only realistic if they rest on the capriciousness of fate. Murphy's Law just doesn't kick the hell out of people like it does to Tess.

There is the class confusion element; the "what constitutes a true gentleman?"; the critique of basing the aristocratic label on either blood or money. But, really, I'm getting burned out on the theme that poor people are just inherently better than everyone else. It's not realistic so it doesn't do much for the development of a class conscience.

There isn't even any feminist theme. Men dominate Tess her entire life, but this isn't the factor that leads to any of Tess' problems. Her problems are shown to be entirely the work of cruel fate (who apparently has it in for her to an extreme degree).

Don't get me wrong. I did enjoy the book. This is just what really prevented me from really loving it. I did enjoy the story and the writing itself. I just think there are better classics out there.