Krishna
If you have read Thomas Hardy’s books, you know not to expect any romantic comedies, or indeed, any happy endings. This book is no different. He has written another sad story, and again, like all his other books, this one is interesting and holds your attention as well.
Jack Durbeyfield, a layabout who is uneducated, learns from Parson Tringham that he is descended from knights. It goes to his head and he goes home in a carriage he could not afford. Tess, the daughter, goes to a dancing ball and is disappointed that a rich boy who came in did not choose her to dance with.
Meanwhile, her mother dreams of the nobility and riches and how a distant relation will adopt Tess and give her a rich husband. Tess will have none of it. When the husband drinks copiously and is unable to go to the market to sell the hives, Tess decides to go herself with her brother Abram but meets with an accident that kills the horse on the way.
Mother sends her to d’Ubervilles where she seems to fall into the clutches of the son Alec, who has evil designs upon her. He pretends to be his mother (in a letter) and ‘offers her’ a job in his farm. Her parents force her to take it.
When she is trapped alone with Alec, Tess is raped and loses her virginity. She comes back home and isolates herself for several months. Finds work in the fields.
We also learn that she had a baby after that single encounter (described as ‘he placed his cheek on hers’ and that is all, though the implied meaning is full intercourse) and it dies, devastating her, since she was very fond of the baby.
It always amuses me to read the old time usage of English which reads totally differently in the language of today. For example what do you think of a portion of the description of a field : “Presently there arose a clicking sound like love making of the grasshopper”? It is not what you or I would think. Thomas Hardy is talking about the courtship sound of the grasshopper. Amusing.
Tess leaves for another big dairy town to start a new life. Again, you hear of St Augustine’s comments : “Thou hast counselled a better course than thou hast permitted”. You remember his other famous words : “ O Lord, make me chaste but not yet”? He seems to have been the Oscar Wilde of his times in humour!
Now a gentleman called Clark falls in love with Tess and wishes to marry her. Though she is in love with him, due to her past, she says no without giving a reason. Finally, she marries him and then faces situations where her past was almost exposed. She also learns that one of the maids in the farm tried to kill herself since that girl did not win Clark. She reveals all to him in their honeymoon suite.
That kills his ardour completely and they decide to live separately. But in the night he sleepwalks, carries her and puts her in an open cabin. They separate the next day and go their separate ways.
Not being able to cope with their parents’ disapproval, Tess lies that she will soon be reconciled with her husband and walks out. Working her way through menial jobs (since the money and allowance arranged by Claire was given away to support her parents) and goes to a harsh farm where Marian, her ex farm-mate now found a place. She also wears torn clothes and shaves off her eyebrows to make her look ugly to repel young men’s advances.
She is shocked to find that the owner of the land is the man whom Clare slapped for being disrespectful to her and he ensures that her life is miserable. When Izzy reaches that place, Tess hears from Marian that Izz was asked to go with Clare to Brazil and decides to go see his parents to plead with them to have Clare take her back. When she reaches the town, she finds that their family is already talking ill of her (overhears it in disguise) and also comes across Alec, who now is a fire and brimstone preacher who visits the same village.
He sees her and renounces his faith and comes after her. Asks her to marry him but she rejects him saying that she is married and he does not seem to think it matters as her husband seems to have abandoned her anyway.
Her sister comes to inform her that her mother is unwell and when she goes to attend to her, resigning her position at the farm, she helps her mother recovers but her father suddenly passes away. They decide to leave for another city but when they are stranded without accommodation again Alex offers a home for them. She refuses but her mother forces her to accept the help.
Izzy and Marian, who also came back because the work in the farm was too harsh, write to Claire asking him to ‘go save his wife before she is taken advantage of’ before they depart to a new farm to work.
Alec comes to persuade hard Tess that her husband is not going to come back.
Finally when Clare comes searching for her, he finds her living with Tess. She sends him away, heartbroken, but when Alec derides her and talks harsh words about Clare, she kills him with a knife and both Clare and Tess run as fugitives.
The book ends soon thereafter. A good classic, not difficult to read, and satisfies.
6/10
– – Krishna