Tess Of The D'urbervilles

Tess Of The D'Urbervilles, first published in three volumes in 1891, is generally regarded as Hardy's masterpiece, and certainly it is his most ambitious tragic novel. This is a story of innocence and sophistication, of man and nature, of history and its relation to the present, concentrated on the fate of a simple country girl whose parents' chance discovery of their descent from a once noble line sends her to seek the assistance of a degenerate relative to whom she surrenders before parting from him in disgust.