I'm pretty sure I read this back when I was living in London and had hour-long commutes, which gave me time for reading long books. The only thing I remembered was that Tess had some hardships and spent time one winter digging "Swedes" (Swedish turnips; actually, rutabaga) out of the frozen ground. Well, actually, that doesn't happen until well into the book, and is not exactly all that important in the overall story.

Quick synopsis: Tess, a beautiful, good hearted country girl, is driven insane by two privileged, egotistical assholes, one who takes pride in being rather a rake, the other a pompous, holier-than-thou moralist with a few skeletons in his own personal closet. But despite the gloomy plot trajectory, this is really a good book. Thomas Hardy was a gifted writer.

So, actually, Tess Derbyfield, is a beautiful, strong, hardworking country girl. Oh, I already said that. Anyway, her parents are rather silly, especially her father. The father hears that he is actually a direct descendant of a noble family, once prominent in their part of Wessex. The family was then known as D'Urberville, but all traces of the family seem to have disappeared. Tess' parents discover a rich, old lady not all that far away who goes by the name of D'Urberville, so send Tess off to claim kinship, hoping to get some support thereby. Tess goes, but meets only the roguish son of the old lady, not the lady herself. But, Tess is offered a place tending to the old lady's chickens and teaching her birds to sing. That works for a while, but the son, Alec, continues pressing his attentions on Tess. Eventually, Tess runs back home. But Alec insists on helping her flee from him (weird, huh?) and then seems to "seduce" her. Probably, he raped her, but books weren't all that explicit in olden days. All we know is that Tess returns home pregnant.

Eventually, Tess has a baby. The baby dies a few months after birth. Tess gets depressed. Eventually, she goes off to a farm in the opposite direction to become a milk maid. There is a well-off, third son of a clergyman, Angel Clare, working the farm. His father refused to send him to university (because Angel wasn't theologically pure enough, or something), so the son must learn to make his way. His approach is to apprentice himself as a farmworker in a number of places so as to learn all the intricacies of farming. Then he'll buy a farm, either in England or in America (or the colonies). All the milkmaids fall hopelessly in love with Mr. Clare, but he clearly favors Tess. Tess, for her part, because she has been besmirched, tries to turn his head toward one of the other milkmaids, but he won't have it.

Eventually, stuff happens and Angel and Tess marry: she relents after repeated refusals. She tries to tell him why she is "unworthy", but doesn't get to why until the evening after their wedding. Once the wedding is over, it's confession time. Angel first, then Tess. Well, he's no Angel, having sewed a few wild oats in his time, so to speak. But for some reason, he takes amiss that Tess was "disadvantaged" by another egoist who was "sewing a few wild oats" himself. The old story that rules for the goose don't apply to the gander. So, Angel decides they must not consummate the marriage. Rather, after a few days, they part. Angel goes off to try his hand at farming in Brazil. Tess soon loses what money Angel provided, mostly by trying to help out her imprudent family, and she is too proud to apply to Angel's parents for additional funds. Thus, Tess is off looking for farm-labor jobs and ends up at the place where she was digging Swedes in wintertime.

Naturally, bad things happen. Angel gets very sick in Brazil and loses touch with Tess. Alec shows up again and renews his attempts to "seduce" her. Tess' father dies and her mother and siblings are evicted from their house. And so forth. It's not a happy book.

But, although it might not be a happy book, it is a very good one. Hardy is a gifted writer and does a wonderful job of "showing" the lives of his characters. One gets a great feel for the lives of the farm folk working the farms, of the changing of the seasons, of the various aspects of the countryside, and so forth.

I've taken rather a shine to Hardy in the past year. And to think my interest in Hardy was all because I fell in love, via a picture in Time magazine, with an actress who was playing one of his heroines in a recent movie adaptation of one of Hardy's works. Please don't tell my spouse.

2014: ...What? (2 stars)

2016: I remember the first time I finished this book, in bed in my college dorm room with my mouth hanging open from the moment Tess declared "I have killed him!" A second reading really was necessary to process.

I think I care more for Tess than I usually care about characters, somehow. My heart aches for her in all the ways her life goes wrong. And I cheer for her because she really is a strong and mature character. She's very well-written.

Alec D'Urberville, on the other hand is sufficiently annoying infuriating, as is Angel Clare. Alec makes me want to scream when he just won't leave Tess alone. I want to smack him. But that didn't do Tess any good... And Angel with his hypocrisy and self-righteousness... Ugh. Poor Tess. I should want Tess to find a better man than Angel, but she loves him so much, I tend to want him to come to his senses instead.

In regards to Tess' experience with Alec, the writing of it frustrates me a bit. To me, up through that moment, it is very clear that Alec raped Tess. She never liked him, never showed him any affection. She blatantly wiped away his kiss. He made her very uncomfortable. Her behavior through that point gives me absolutely no reason to believe that Tess would willingly have sex with Alec. Afterward, however, the writing makes it seem more like they had been in a relationship and she had willingly slept with him, though she regretted it later. And those two interpretations just don't jive. After thinking about it, I've decided on my interpretation. I think it is kind of both of the above. I think Alec raped her. And then because of the society she lived in, after that happened, Tess felt like she belonged to Alec or was tied to him in a way. It's even said in the book that she's more married to Alec than she is to Angel. Of course, I don't believe that, but I think that would have been her thought process. So, I think that after Alec "claimed" her, she continued working at the D'Urberville estate, and probably allowed him to have sex with her again, though she still didn't want that kind of relationship with him. Until finally, she couldn't live with it anymore, and she left for home.

Through all that, it really is a surprisingly feminist book for one written by a man in the 1800's. I should read more of his work (any suggestions?). I also think this book could inspire a really good modern film adaptation.

I think my only complaint (aside from maybe the ambiguity of the rape/seduction) is that it can be quite slow, especially during Tess' employment at the dairy. I almost only brought my rating up one star because of that, but I love Tess so much and the story itself is so beautifully tragic that I rated it 4 stars.

I want to write a better review of this book. Maybe I'll edit this sometime.

This is not a list of best or worst or anything reads of 2014. Instead, I wanted to use this post to remember someone. Not that I need the blog to this but hey-ho. You'll get the idea.

 

Earlier this year, one of the book-a-day memes dedicated a day to "a book that most reminds you of your English teacher". As soon as this one came up I was stuck - and actually fell off the meme wagon. 

 

I had several English teachers of course, but one stands out. 

 

When Mr. H. joined my year, he quickly became notorious for being a strict, cynical, demanding b******. 

The fact that he remembered me from a trip to London (which he had organised but nearly messed-up completely), did not help us to get off on good terms. It took quite a few months for tempers to settle and eventually we found we had a mutual liking for books. In particular, Steinbeck. So, we ended up talking about books, even swapping book recommendations.  He introduced me to Bukowski, Pinter, Sillitoe, the Beats. I still remember borrowing his copy of On the Road and turning crimson when he answered my questions about some of the idioms used in The Dharma Bums. 

 

It turned out that the strict, cynical, demanding b****** was a great teacher. He even invested his own time in prepping a group of us (and continued to do so for many years) for university entrance exams. 

It turned out that he took teaching seriously and expected students to make an effort. He never put anyone down. He tried to encourage people to learn, to discover new horizons, to move beyond the status quo and beyond the limited expectations set by the ministry of education. 

 

Five years after our first encounter, I went to study abroad. We kept in contact for a couple of years after I graduated but sadly we lost touch in the end. The last book he recommended to me was Tess of the D'Urbervilles. I have had the copy Mr. H. gave to me for nearly thirteen years but only got around to reading it in January 2014.   

 

My English teacher passed away in March this year.

 

And I never had a chance to say...

"Oi, Mr. H. Why on earth did you think I might like Tess?!"

I wouldn't kick Mr. Rochester out of bed for eating crackers.

 

Mr. Darcy!

 

Angel Claire must die.  GRRRRRRR.

C19th SHAG/MARRY/KILL

Oh boy, as a C19th literature nut, I’ve really been looking forward to this one!

So who would I shag? Absolute no brainer here. Captain Troy (Far from the Madding Crowd) could show me his mad skillz with a sword any day of the week.

And who would I marry? Ah, Mr Edward Fairfax Rochester of course (especially if he looked like Michael Fassbender), but I would make sure he signed a pre-nup stating that if I went a bit loopy he wouldn’t lock me in the attic. And equally, I would promise not to burn the house down.

As for kill… Angel Clare from Tess of the D’Urbervilles. Seriously, there is no one else in literature who I hate as much as I hate him. And it would be a slow and painful death too. He is a cowardly, sanctimonious, two-faced, hypocritical little shit. And I would warn Tess’s sister to steer well clear of him too. Why do I hate him so much? This is why

He marries Tess and on their wedding night he confesses to an affair with an older woman before he met Tess, and asks her forgiveness. Tess tells him there is nothing to forgive and responds that she was raped by Alec D’Urberville. So what does Angel do? He tells her she is reduced in his eyes and he can’t forgive her. He then abandons her and goes to Brazil. But not before asking Tess’s best friend to come with him AS HIS MISTRESS! Bastard. 

(spoiler show)

Did I tell you I really hate him?