Tess of the D’Urbervilles (Томас Харди (Гарди)).

«Тесс из рода д'Урбервиллей» - роман английского писателя Томаса Харди, опубликованный в 1891 году. История рассказывает о жизни главной героини Тесс Дербиша, которая пытается выбраться из бедности своей семьи, притворяясь членом знатного рода д'Урбервиллей. Роман раскрывает противоречия и социальные конвенции викторианского общества и показывает судьбу героини через ее отношения с двумя разными мужчинами. Харди с большой глубиной отображает нравственные дилеммы и двойные стандарты общества, в котором живет Тесс. Роман является классикой мировой литературы, а Тесс - одной из самых ярких и образных героинь английской литературы.

Tess of D’Urbervilles is an ambitious novel by the celebrated English writer Thomas Hardy (1840-1928).

This exquisite account of a love triangle centres on a young woman whose adventures are shaped by her poverty, her ambition to rise in the social order, and her attraction to two men who belong to opposite ends of the Victorian social spectrum. Neither man reciprocates her love, but one of them induces her to commit adultery, while the other, wealthy and noble, takes her as his wife. Indeed, the crux of the tragic story is Tess’s dilemma between the material well-being she longs for, even through unseemly means, and the spiritual aspirations for which she is culpable.

And yet Hardy’s real achievement lies not in moralising about the conflicts of his pristine heroine but, rather, in capturing the myriad textures of his fictional world and rendering with unflinching honesty and passion both its absurdities and its sensitivity. We follow Tess with growing apprehension, fearing how her failure and ultimate demise will subvert the potential for either dreams or happiness among countless poor and impoverished people who cannot transcend the liabilities of their station. But even as we witness Tess outwardly lose everything, we likewise sense the uncertainty around those who try to imitate her self-defeating course, and begin to appreciate more fully the ingrained anxieties that weigh upon Victorian society at large.

At times this epic tale roils with pathos. Often, the novel’ll put us in a state of suspended animation, perhaps because Thomas Hardy manages to drag out his narrative pace, so that the punctuation marks may just as easily be the symbolism of tides, higher or lower, within a Revolutionary organ—Left/Right depending on whom you speak to.