Set in Hardy\'s Wessex, Tess is a moving novel of hypocrisy and double standards.
It explores Tess\'s relationships with two very different men, her struggle against the social mores of the rural Victorian world which she inhabits and the hypocrisy of the age..
In her search for respectability her fortunes fluctuate wildly, and the story assumes the proportions of a Greek tragedy.
It tells of Tess Durbeyfield, the daughter of a poor and dissipated villager, who learns that she may be descended from the ancient family of d\'Urbeville.
Its challenging sub-title, A Pure Woman, infuriated critics when the book was first published in 1891, and it was condemned as immoral and pessimistic.
Set in Hardy\'s Wessex, Tess is a moving novel of hypocrisy and double standards
