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Tess Of The D’Urbervilles is a Victorian classic, featuring the story of a young woman, who is sent to work for a noble family, but ultimately falls victim to love, seduction, betrayal, and finally doom. Summary Of The Book Tess Of The D’Urbervilles is a tragedy written by Thomas Hardy, featuring Tess Durbeyfield as the heroine. She is portrayed by Hardy as a dignified, charming, and intelligent girl, whose efforts to improve her family’s financial condition is nothing less than courageous. The events which unfold in the story are seen through Tess’s eyes, and are told in in the third person narrative. Hardy divided the story into seven phases, which was purposely done to correlate with the plot development and its resulting moral implications. The title of each phase corresponds to the life phase of Hardy’s protagonist. These are “The Maiden”, “Fulfillment”, “Maiden No More”, “The Rally”, “The Woman Pays”, “The Consequence”, and “The Convert”. After Tess’s father learns that their family may have descended from an ancient Norman lineage, he immediately encourages Tess to seek kinship with Mrs. D’Urbervilles. Tess is reluctant to leave home, but her family’s plight forces her to seek employment with a noble family. There, Tess falls prey to the seduction of Alec D’Urbervilles, who is the son of her employer. Their illicit affair results in Tess giving birth to an illegitimate child, who tragically passes in infancy. This ultimately sets Tess up for a downward spiral, and thus leading readers deeper into the plot. Tess Of The D’Urbervilles was adapted into various theatre, film, and opera performances. The story was also adapted into a four part series for the BBC. About Thomas Hardy Thomas Hardy was a celebrated English poet and novelist. He has authored many notable works including, A Pair Of Blue Eyes, Jude The Obscure, and Far From The Madding Crowd. Hardy was trained as an architect from King’s College in London. He won many prizes from the Architectural Association and the Royal Institute Of British Architects. The Poor Man And The Lady was written in 1867 and was Hardy’s first novel. It was considered too politically controversial by publishers, and was therefore never published. Hardy was married to Emma Lavinia Gifford, until her death in 1912. Then in 1914, he was remarried to Florence Dugdale. Hardy passed away in 1928.