I Deserve a Medal for Finishing (Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy)

Member Name: DavyMichelle

Product:	Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
Date:	22/03/09 (160 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Very Artsy I Guess

Disadvantages: Hard Work, Strange Ending, Anti-Fairy Tale Morals

I expect I'll surprise you all here by admitting to reading this! Sometimes though, the Mrs and I share or swap books for something different to read and that's why I came to read this book. I had a quick look on Amazon and they sell this for £1.99 if you buy the Wordsworth Classics version. Nice and cheap read then at least.

Reading this book was quite hard work for me as I'm a bloke of few words in general and I'm not all that familiar with 1800s English. In fairness though, I've read Charles Dickens on a few occasions and not found his books nearly as difficult so I do think maybe Thomas Hardy has made use of quite a lot of pretentious words and phrases even for the time period he wrote it in.

The story is obviously about a young woman called Tess who basically is coming into her own and making mistake after mistake along the way. She doesn't want to play the game that her parents want her to play and it quickly leads her into difficulties. You'd think trying to be good and honest would get you somewhere in life, but all it gets Tess is up the duff out of wedlock which of course wasn't really socially acceptable in those days.

After the baby dies, Tess goes off to work as a dairy maid and falls in love. She can't keep her mouth shut about the illegitimate child though to her new husband, despite her Mother's warnings, and quickly finds herself in hot water again.

I have to say that I was a bit surprised with just how doom and gloom this all was. I'm no die-hard romantic but a tiny bit of happiness or reward for all of Tess's troubles would have been appreciated. The way the story ends is just unbelievable really and although it's good that I couldn't predict the ending, I still would have rather read one I found slightly fitting with the way the rest of the story had gone.

I know I'm just a simple bloke who's opinion isn't going to be worth a whole lot on "classic literature" but at least I can warn all the other simple folks out there not to waste their time on this. It's hard work for an outcome that will leave you feeling deflated. Unless of course you're an English student or someone who wants to read it for its "historical value" or some other educated or artistic purpose.

Summary: Not Recommended