Rating: 
Summary: Early feminist work - wonderful!
Review: What a wonderful piece of literature, and quite a liberal (read: feminist) story for the time period it comes from! Not only are the characters well-drawn and utterly flawed (just like real humans) but the main plot reads as timeless. The heroine (Tess) takes most of her life as it is thrown at her. When she finally decides to take some small measure of control of her fate, it is her very womanhood - and the lack of choice accompanying it - that is slapped back in her face. A great love story in many respects, in the end the true love here is Tess' love of herself (and the reader's love for her), and her unwillingness to be a victim her entire life. Thankfully, you'll find no happy endings in this book. What you will find is a story written by an early feminist, and characters that will stay with you forever.
Rating:
Summary: Tess is wonderful
Review: This is a wonderful book written by Thomas Hardy. When i first bought this book I had someone with me that said it wasn't very good, but I bought the book anyway and am now really glad that I did. Tess is such a sweet woman who has bad luck within her life. The man who abuses her and the man who loves her and can not forgive her. It is a beautiful romance story with a unforgettable ending. I almost cried after reading this book and it has now become my all time favourite. You really should read it. Thomas Hardy manages to tell the tale magically and Tess will forever be in your memory.
Rating: 
Summary: So, So
Review: I was a little bit disappointed by Tess, but it is a good outlook of late Victorian Era on the progress of woman. It is a simple story of how a Norman family declined and rose and declined again. It is also about how a men can control the lives of woman. It is a good read for those who like a mixture of feminism wiht social history with a little romance thrown in.
Rating:
Summary: A Classic Tragedy
Review: I don't think that Tess of the D'Urbervilles is to be considered a realistic portrayal of life. It is more like a Greek tragedy or Shakespearean tragedy. The characters are larger than life and the events of the book mythic in scale. Nevertheless, just like with, say, Macbeth I was drawn into the plot and actually found myself getting angry and upset about the turn of events. So I got my money's worth. Hardy definitely has cast this story very darkly. Tess is no mere innocent victim. And Alec is not so clearly just an evil villian. Nor is Angel an angel. The characters are complex and deep, and the reader ends up caring about them. That's why this book is a classic. See the A&E adaptation in film for a fascinating and moving interpretation.
Rating:
Summary: An Authentic Tragedy
Review: How amazing. Thomas Hardy actually makes you fall in love with his leading lady, Tess, yourself. Other reviewers have complained she allowed herself to be walked on; that is not true. She had a deep sense of the (false) injury comitted to her husband and accepted what she percieved as justified punishment. Mr Hardy simply rips out your heart and makes you bleed with her. I don't expect your average high school student forced to read the novel for an assignment will agree, but as pleasure reading, this definitely has money on any modern day romance or drama.
Rating:
Summary: A pure woman
Review: Any self confessed 'woe is me'-style drama queen will be inconsolable if they ever stumble across Hardy's story about the ultimate victim. Tess is used and abused by almost every other character in the book and remains unshakeably self righteous throughout. (well almost) Without giving too much away, strong irony is cleverly used here and there, Hardy's always wonderful theme-setting descriptive skills shine as usual and the character studies are brilliant. Every main person in the book has one surprise or other up their sleeve. All in all, it's a classic tragedy...
Rating: 
Summary: Pretty pointless...
Review: This book was not that great. It is pretty frivolous in my opinion. I read it for English class and was able to analyze it well. However, the plot is dumb and disappointing.
Rating:
Summary: Beautifully written masterpiece...
Review: This book was well-written and deserves respect. If people don't like Hardy's style of writing, that's one thing, but this book is a tragic story that deserves praise one way or another.
Rating:
Summary: Place and time
Review: I was supposed to read this book 25 or so years ago in high school. It was heavy going, and pretty meaningless to me at the time. It has come to be one of my favourite books, and I have read it more than once. The thing about hardy is that the sense of place, and time is so evocative. I have lived as an adult in Dorset - hardy Country, and recognise many of the locales he writes so beautifully about. More astounding is that some of the social mores and economic system ( indentured labour, tied villages) still exist. Like Dickens, coincidence plays a heavy hand in Hardy's plot development, a contrivance that is a little agitating to the modern, more cynical reader. Still, I find it entiely appropriate to an era when people were most often trapped in a life dictated by circumstance, when free will didn't play nearly as large a part as it does now, in a Britain where there was no place for a meritocracy, class and social station being everything. Some vestiges of that are still very evident in English life (Royalty representing the apex of the class system). Tess is a classic, well worth the effort on a number of levels - the rhythm of language, and what it says about its time and place.
Rating: 
Summary: EAYK!
Review: Silly, stupid, boring. I had to read it for a project and I was about to faint. Thank God that it was short:) Do you still wanna read it? Then good luck! I hate to say this but belive me you will be sorry for it!
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