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Tess of the d'Urbevilles
Dec. 4th, 2025 05:53 amI've finished listening to Tess of the d'Urbevilles, by Thomas Hardy.
I heard about half of it, all told, and because I was going to sleep while listening, I didn't hear the other half. This messed with the ending, which I had to completely re-listen to, because of the way that Harding wrote it.
At first, I thought that this was a "torture the protagonist" novel. In many ways, it is, but not completely. It's also a slice-of-life novel, depicting rural England at the time. When it's not one, it's the other.
The novel is about the life of a perfectly ordinary rural girl, a cottager, her troubles, and what the life of a rural girl looks like. She becomes an unwed mother, loses her child, and then it depicts what a life with a ruined reputation looks like. In essence, the job of this story is to humanize the prodigal daughter, to turn them from a stereotyped cartoon into a real person who still deserves a shot a decent life and redemption.
If Tess was a TV show, it would run a number of seasons, then Tess would, without warning, go literary crazy, leaving the audience saying, "What the fuck kind of ending was that?" Kinda like the MASH ending.
The ending felt like a rush job. This work was a serial, so I can hear the editor saying, "Tess numbers are down. I'm not renewing your contract. Wrap it up." Then Harding had to figure out how to end that thing. The problem with serials is that they're structured to keep going endlessly, or as long as required, so wrapping them up was a challenge.
I cannot recommend this book, but it does have it worth. If this is really what you want, then go for it. If it's not what you want, then don't bother.
I heard about half of it, all told, and because I was going to sleep while listening, I didn't hear the other half. This messed with the ending, which I had to completely re-listen to, because of the way that Harding wrote it.
At first, I thought that this was a "torture the protagonist" novel. In many ways, it is, but not completely. It's also a slice-of-life novel, depicting rural England at the time. When it's not one, it's the other.
The novel is about the life of a perfectly ordinary rural girl, a cottager, her troubles, and what the life of a rural girl looks like. She becomes an unwed mother, loses her child, and then it depicts what a life with a ruined reputation looks like. In essence, the job of this story is to humanize the prodigal daughter, to turn them from a stereotyped cartoon into a real person who still deserves a shot a decent life and redemption.
If Tess was a TV show, it would run a number of seasons, then Tess would, without warning, go literary crazy, leaving the audience saying, "What the fuck kind of ending was that?" Kinda like the MASH ending.
The ending felt like a rush job. This work was a serial, so I can hear the editor saying, "Tess numbers are down. I'm not renewing your contract. Wrap it up." Then Harding had to figure out how to end that thing. The problem with serials is that they're structured to keep going endlessly, or as long as required, so wrapping them up was a challenge.
I cannot recommend this book, but it does have it worth. If this is really what you want, then go for it. If it's not what you want, then don't bother.
