Thomas Hardy and Tess of the D’Urbervilles

A video talk

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Tess of the D'Urbervilles (2008)

Tess of the D’Urbervilles has always been the most beloved of Thomas Hardy’s books. And yet it shocked its first readers so much that Hardy was forced to change parts of it before he could get it published.

It’s a tragic novel, with an impending sense of doom throughout, and yet it is also an exquisitely beautiful novel, with its warm and sympathetic heroine, its rich evocation of a pastoral landscape, and its plea for the better treatment of women.

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  • Reading recommendations for biographies, books, videos and more.
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Tess is one of the greatest triumphs of civilisation: a natural girl.” ― Irving Howe, literary critic

Thomas Hardy added a fictional county to the map of England – Wessex. He used real places as settings for scenes in his books, he wrote wonderful short stories and poems celebrating the beauty of the Dorset landscape. The Industrial Age was rapidly bringing changes and Hardy wanted to preserve in his fiction the ways of a rural world that were fast disappearing. He does this superbly in Tess of the D’Urbervilles.

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Featured image credit- Gemma Arterton in Tess of the D’Urbervilles (2008), https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1186342/

Comments (4)

  1. LYN BROWNE

    hello Susannah, with my husband safely on the golf course I have been able to sit down and enjoy your virtual talk on Thomas Hardy. I studied him a lot at university, even wrote my dissertation on ‘Poems 1912-13’, but I have learnt so much from your talk. I had not even known about Emma Hardy’s ‘what I think of my husband’! Maybe all of us should write one of those pieces.
    Your observation about the duality Hardy felt, trying to cover up his humble origins, being demonstrated by his body being buried in two places is such an insight.
    And regarding ‘Tess’ – how did I never know about that wheelbarrow transporting the girls through the flooded lane in an early version? What, not in Angel’s arms after all?!
    By the way, I did listen to Richard Burton reading ‘Beyond the Last Lamp’ and kept thinking of ‘Under Milk Wood’. You read it better.
    Best wishes,
    Lyn

    • Susannah Fullerton

      Well I can’t agree that I read anything better than Richard Burton, but thanks for the lovely compliment. I am so delighted you enjoyed my Thomas Hardy talk. Such an interesting and complex man.
      My new talk is on my Top Ten Places in Literary England. Such fun to make, though very hard deciding on those top ten, and then ranking them. You can get it from my website for $6 if you are interested.

  2. Alison Copeman

    I understood from the Squadron that we could listen to the whole talk but I now find that we have to buy it

    • Susannah Fullerton

      No, you should have had the whole talk from the Squadron. They bought it from me so they could send it out to all the members. Please let them know if you have a problem, but they should have sent you the link and the password. I do hope you enjoy it.

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