Tess of the D'Ubervilles by Thomas Hardy

Forget Jane Austen's Elizabeth, Tess Durbeyfield is a proper herione, granted a tragic one.

This review is basically a summary of the book, and includes spoilers and mild sarcasm, just to let you know. What I liked about Tess is that she was very active and made decisions, even though her decisions were often not the best ones. Also, the only two men she got to know were scum.

Review starts here:

I loved this book. First thing, Thomas Hardy knows how to write. If no one else in the world knows how to write Thomas Hardy does.

Tess is one heroine you can feel sorry for. She is young, innocent, pure, naive, and apparently everyone can see it. Her father hangs on to his pride above all else and is convinced that he is a D'Uberville instead of a Durbeyfield, while her mother mistakes how naive she really is while sending her to "claim kin" where she me meets Alec D'Uberville who rapes her. She has his baby that dies soon after birth.

She goes away to become a milkmaid and meets the well-off Angel Clare who falls in love with her "purity", asks her to marry him when she says that she is not right for him, and keeps asking until she says yes. When her mother hears of the marriage she warns Tess not to tell Angel about the rape and baby, but Tess has so much faith in Angel that on their wedding night she tells him everything after he reveals his darkest secret. She forgives him, he says that she is now no longer the woman he fell in love with, and abandons her for over a year.

During that time she goes back to her parents to find that they are sick. Her dad dies and they are about to be evicted from their house. Tess meets Alec again, who is now a preacher, but he abandons his faith after meeting Tess again because she has tempted him like the Whore of Babylon. He says that he regrets the suffering he caused her and offers to give Tess and her family economic help. Tess tries to refuse and hold out for her "husband" but seeing no other option accepts his help and becomes his mistress.

Angel, who was on a soul searching trip in Brazil, decides that he has a conscious and comes looking for Tess. He finds her with Alec and begs her to come back to him. She says no, and tells him to go away. Then she is so distraught that she kills Alec for making fun of her marriage with Angel, goes back to Angel and gets arrested for Alec's murder at Stonehenge. She is convicted and sentenced to death.

All in all, pretty depressing towards the end.