Rating: 
Summary: A Beautiful Book
Review: I have just finished reading all of the reviews for my most beloved book. Though most were supportive, there were a few that cut it down with extreme injustice. I read this book last year, when I was 13, no one made me read it, I was simply drawn to it. I was swept away once I got through the first chapter. To those who have never read it, I encourage you to ignore all of the bad reviews, and listen to the ones that loved it.
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Summary: Best book forced to read......
Review: Out of all the book I was forced to read...I LOVED this one... the movie was good but the book was great...it is the only book I still have from my early Michigan college years.
Rating:
Summary: This isn't a book for everyone
Review: Stirring up controversy was one thing that Thomas Hardy did best, and this book is one of them. This story was attacking so many different subjects in the time it was first published, which makes it all the better to read. I wouldn't recommend this book to just anyone, only people who can appreciate how the text of this book was written and how the Hardy wove many different ideas together to create a tragic life and ending for such a young girl. The impact of what happened throughout Tesses short life is what stunned me the most. Innocence or mentality? Only the author knows.
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Summary: Nature and Mental state in Tess
Review: In Tess of the D'Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy employs nature as a tool in helping him depict and develop the tragic nature of his protagonist, Tess. At least two aspects of nature are central to achieving this end: First of all is the establishment of a correlation between Tess's mental state and natural settings. Second, the use of natural phenomena as a prediction of Tess's own fate. Hardy has fully exploited the use of nature to illustrate that Tess is the victim of her uncontrollable and predetermined Fate. Hardy establishes from the beginning the notion that the world is a mere "psychological phenomenon" (Hardy 101). One can, therefore, deduce from this "fact" that nature, as it is seen through Tess's eyes, is only the physical image of Tess's inner emotions during a particular period of time. It is during the intercepting period between her devastating seduction by Alec and her encounter with her future husband, Angel, that Tess feels most deje! cted. "The only exercise that Tess took at this time was after dark; and it was then, when out in the woods, that she seemed least solitary" (Hardy 100). Indeed, Mother Nature is the only place where Tess can attain "absolute mental liberty" from all her worldly troubles (Hardy 100) and where she can find her peace of mind. After her seduction by Alec, Tess gathers her strengths, recollects herself, and starts a new life as a milkmaid in a quiet countryside at a farm called Talbothays. This is a deliberate attempt on Tess's part to avoid the possibility of the occurrence of another event on such a castatrophic scale. Now, working closely with nature (cows to be specific), she has succeeded in "shunning mankind" (Hardy 101), and truly believes that she is laying a new foundation for her future (Hardy 124). Surrounded by serene natural settings, this "fresh and virginal daughter of Nature" (Hardy 137) finds tranquillity in her surroundi! ngs despite the fact that she is in the midst of misery. In! Tess's eyes, nature is beautiful because it brings her joy-- and because it is where she belongs to. Angel comes from a very religious and educated family. Although he would never think of "sacrificing" humanity for religion (Hardy 284), he is in actuality a very convention-bound individual. The moral code and the "arbitrary law of society" (Hardy 297) that accompany religion are deeply rooted in Angel's thinking. His presence at Talbothays disturbs the natural settings with the social customs he brings into the village "which had no foundation in nature" (Hardy 297). Hardy introduces Angel into the novel in order to signal a transition in Tess's life. Unfortunately, it is a transition for the worse. From this point on, as Tess' and Angel's relationship grows, Tess's relationship with nature, which has come to symbolize all that is good for her, has declined in proportion. Tess has allowed her relationship with the society (Angel) to take prec! edence over that with nature (by falling in love with and marrying Angel). "Nightfall, which in the frost of winter comes as a fiend and in the warmth of summer, as a lover" (Hardy 368). Angel's passion for Tess in the summer does not carry beyond its boundary. Tess's dream of a happy life is shattered into a thousand pieces when her worst nightmare comes true-- Angel is unable to accept her past. As Tess's mental state changes, so does her perception of nature. The beautiful scenery at her once cherished village of Talbothays is no more. "The gold of the summer picture was now grey, the colours mean, the rich soil mud, and the river cold" (Hardy 269). In the place which Tess had once thought of as a place of rebirth after her disastrous experience with Alec, she now sees only the dullness and helplessness of a dead winter. Tess's view of nature is purely perceptual. What should have been natural-- fallen leaves and bare tree branches-- have become depre! ssing and unpleasant. These natural phenomena are, in truth! , nothing more than physical manifestations of her sadden and broken heart. Nature has taken on a melancholy outlook not because it is indeed melancholy but because Tess is projecting feelings upon it. This is Hardy's so-called "psychological phenomenon." Another important method besides relating Tess' feelings with natural phenomena is the use of imagery to mirror Tess's own fate. In two instances, long before the end of the novel, the stage for the final act of Tess's life has already been inauspiciously set up. In the first instance, Tess is symbolized by different animals being hunted down in a field : "[U]naware of the ephemeral nature of their (the animals') refuge and of the doom that awaited them later in the day, when, their covert shrinking to a more and more horrible narrowness, they were huddled together... till the last few yards of upright wheat fell also under the teeth of the unerring reaper, and they were every one put to death by the sticks! and stones of the harvesters" (Hardy 103). Hardy speaks of "doom that awaited them later in the day"; Tess knows exactly what awaits her. "She walked in brightness, but she knew that in the background those shapes of darkness were always spread. They might be receding or they might be approaching, one or the other, a little every day" (Hardy 212). Tess, like these animals, is unable to defend herself from the "harvesters." Tess's attempt to escape her fate in her "refuge" (Talbothays) proves to be futile. Without any question, Angel and Alec are the "harvesters." Although they do not kill Tess in a physical sense, they must bear the responsibility of forcing her into the "horrible narrowness." What is this "horrible narrowness"? It is the only option left for Tess to liberate herself once and for all from her past-- the killing of Alec (Hardy 406). Tess has done just that; and this is the fatal act t! hat destroy not only her past, but also her own ephemeral e! xistence. In the second instance, Hardy presents to the readers, in a graver tone, an even gloomier setting in which Tess is symbolized by pheasants-- also being hunted down: "Under the trees several pheasants lay about, their rich plumage dabbled with blood; some were dead, some feebly twitching a wing, some staring up at the sky, some pulsating quickly, some contorted, some stretched out-- all of them writhing in agony except the fortunate ones whose tortures had ended during the night by the inability of nature to bear more" (Hardy 296). One must admit that this scene best reflects and symbolizes the horrible experience Tess has gone through in the whole novel-- her struggle for survival, her indescribable agony, and finally, her "luck" that nature is unable to sustain her painful existence any longer. Hardy notes that the hunter of these birds has a "blood-thirsty light in [his] eyes" (Hardy 296). He is, however, civil and gentle for most! of the year-- except in autumn and winter (Hardy 296). This is where the change of seasons takes part in Hardy's shaping of a predetermined fate for Tess. Angel is "civil and gentle" to Tess during summer; but one also must also note that his rejection of her comes during winter. One can fairly say that Hardy leaves his readers no other choice but to convict Angel as the killer of Tess. He presents the end of Tess in his bloody account of the pheasants. In doing so, Hardy has revealed the unshakable destiny of his protagonist. Hardy is able to make use of his materialization of both the mental and fatalistic elements in the novel through his clever descriptions of nature to draw a portrait of a great tragic heroine. In the face of unbearable misery, only nature testifies to the sad story of this simple country girl. The speechless speaks for the inside of Tess. And the readers have been given a chance to realize that what will come is predetermined and inevitable.! Reference: Hardy, Thomas. Tess of the D'Urbervilles. New! York: Signet Classic, 1980.
Rating: 
Summary: WHY???????????????????????????????????????????????????
Review: WHY are poor, innocent school kids forced to read this intensly dull text? It is enough to put anyone off English Lit for LIFE. If anyone in authority is reading this, PLEASE take this piece of junk OFF the sylabus...PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!
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Summary: Wonderfully written heart wrenching Tragedy
Review: What else can I say that the other positive reviewers havn't yet? It was wonderfully written and truly heart wrenching. It took a lot of guts for Hardy to publish it as well because it was was a very contriversial for its time and contains messages that can be carried over into today even. A perfect example of Victorian literature, which is 2nd to none except fantasy ;)
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Summary: Wanted to stuff it down author's throat
Review: I was forced to read Tess for summer reading. I have possibly never been so glad to finish a book, not out of joy at a good reading experience but because the novel was such torture to wade through, in all its melodrama, sensationalistic elements, unlikable characters, and gaping holes in the plot, especially towards the end. Tess is a weakling who acts illogically, vacillates and secures the reader's complete disgust before the end. One should already know it from the title and the first few pages, where Tess's father, a peasant, finds out that he is the relic of an old noble family (his real name is Durbeyfield). Why cannot books have sense? All through the novel I longed to be reading Pride and Prejudice or Middlemarch. The time this book was written in has nothing to do with it; both the two books just mentioned were written considerably before it. I was left with a very poor impression of Thomas Hardy's talents as a writer. (Incidentally, it should tell you something that more than one reader/reviewer compared it to the movie Titanic.)
Rating:
Summary: Boring!
Review: We had to read it for our GCSE coursework. Everybody found it boring and too descriptive. If you have a choice, do not choose this book! To make it worse, it is incredibly long and depressing. DO NOT EVEN TOUCH IT!!!
Rating:
Summary: A Victorian Classic!
Review: This book won't be for everyone. Yes, it can be too contrived, too convenient, too melodramatic, but you must take into consideration the time in which it was written. If you give in to the the story of Tess, you will be rewarded for it is a well written story with complex characters that define Hardy's style.
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Summary: Tess is a pritty good book
Review: i Do like this book. I red it for school for 10th grade. But it was pritty hard for me to read, because Im not a English person. I admit that I used cliff's notes alot, but i did reed some. I agree with the person that wrote you should see Titantic before reading this book. Titanic is the pick for intelagent people, and you don't have to think much!! But I do like 'Tess.' It's a very sad book, but I do not like Angel Clare. I think he's a wimp--Why can't he be like Jack Dawson and save Tess (Rose)? Tess of the Dubervilles is a very tough, but good book.
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