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Rating: 
Summary: unforgettable
Review: This book was required reading for one of my university English courses. I am glad that it was; otherwise I probably wouldn't have given it a second look.The main character, Tess D'Urberville tragic and unforgettable woman. Hardy's characterizations were perfectly believable. His gift for dramatic conflict and evocative scenery is top notch. The theme of the story is a commentary on how people and societies behave when their ethics are purely subjective/relative vs the classic Greek and later Roman Cathokic view of divine law/ethics being absolute and therfore independent of human opinion. It's a fair criticism of both however. It exposes the then--and sadly still now-- hypocricy of many of the "churchianity" types. And it exposes the extremes--often very bad--that many of the non-religious resorted to in reaction against Christianity's pereceived shortcomings after the "Enlightenment" with the then-new "modernist" thought and philosophy This theme of absolute vs. relative ethics is clearly as germane today as it was during Hardy's time. This book is worth reading for that alone, for it will make you look at the world around you in ways perhaps that you never did before if you are unfamiliar with such things. Indeed the D'Urberville antagonist even comes right out and says as much about relative ethics. In one passage he explains why he acts the horrible ways that he does precisely because to him ethics/morals are purely relative and subjective. He does what he "feels" like. But not to be outdone, Christianity takes its lumps too: The cold and callous way priest of the local church who refused to allow Tess's dead baby rest in hallowed ground was a poor excuse for a human being--let alone a messenger of Jesus. What can I say? Tess of the D'Urbervilles is a book you'll read in less than a week; but you will remember it, and poor Tess, for a lifetime.
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