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Tess of the D'Urbervilles
Tess of the D'Urbervilles
Dec 12, 2025 11:00 PM

Author:Thomas Hardy

Tess of the D'Urbervilles

"I would be content, ay, glad, to live with you as your servant, if I may not as your wife; so that I could only be near you, and get glimpses of you, and think of you as mine ... I long for only one thing in heaven or earth or under the earth, to meet you, my own dear! Come to me - come to me, and save me from what threatens me!"

When Tess Durbeyfield is driven by family poverty to claim kinship with the wealthy D'Urbervilles and seek a portion of their family fortune, meeting her 'cousin' Alec proves to be her downfall. A very different man, Angel Clare, seems to offer her love and salvation, but Tess must choose whether to reveal her past or remain silent in the hope of a peaceful future. With its sensitive depiction of the wronged Tess and powerful criticism of social convention, Tess of the D'Urbervilles is one of the most moving and poetic of Hardy's novels.

The Penguin English Library - 100 editions of the best fiction in English, from the eighteenth century and the very first novels to the beginning of the First World War.

Reviews

Beautifully observed. Makes you laugh on every page

—— The Times

Hilarious. Chortle-out-loud turns of phrase, razor-sharp observations

—— Stylist

Fresh, extremely funny

—— Sunday Times

Really enjoyable and highly recommended. Dawn French is a wonderful writer - witty, wise and poignant

—— Daily Mail

A hilarious and compelling read

—— Good Housekeeping

This miraculous volume of selected letters provides a moving and revelatory portrait of the famed author of Slaughterhouse-Five and Cat’s Cradle. . . . Fans will find the collection as spellbinding as Vonnegut’s best novels, and casual readers will discover letters as splendid in their own way as those of Keats.

—— Publisher's Weekly

A laughing prophet of doom

—— New York Times

Unimitative and inimitable social satirist

—— Harper's

A satirist with a heart, a moralist with a whoopee cushion, a cynic who wants to believe

—— Jay McInerney

Splendidly assembled and edited

—— Kurt Andersen , Scotsman

Unique

—— Doris Lessing

Kurt Vonnegut never regarded himself as a great writer. But he did possess that undervalued gift of charm, of sociability. There are authors we admire or envy, but there are just a few we really, really love, and Vonnegut is one of them.

—— Washington Times

[Reveals] Vonnegut’s passions, annoyances, loves, losses, mind and heart . . . The letters stand alone—and stand tall, indeed. . . . Vonnegut’s most human of hearts beats on every page

—— Kirkus Reviews

A well-rounded collection of letters

—— James Campbell , Guardian

[The letters] have a directness and a consistency, a scruffy but ensnaring humanity… Kurt seems by turns kind, engaged, imaginative, witty, self-deprecating (“I write with a big black crayon… grasped in a grubby, kindergarten fist,”) and – on various fronts – courageous

—— Keith Miller , Daily Telegraph

Crisply edited... There was something fundamentally goodhearted about Vonnegut. For all his gloom and cantankerousness, he never entirely lost his faith in human nature.

—— John Preston , Spectator
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