To sekhmet1010, did I say it’s romance? no. I clearly said in my original post I thought it was, but it was not. and i have NO problem if it is NOT a romance novel. I LOVE wuthering heights and it is no romance either and a depressing story. the difference is that book isn’t boring and have more interesting characters than whiny Tess and two boring male leads.

And don’t be stupid to try to insult people that dont agree with your opinion. IF I DON’T INSULT YOU DON’T INSULT ME. it is simple as that.

I feel like we underestimate the intelligence of women in 19th century too much. Women back then are still capable of choosing a good men. Sure unhappy marriages happen here and there but happy marriages also exist.

The entire problem with Tess is the husband literally leaves her and she waits for him out of ignorance and naivety that ‘one day he will come back’. While if you compare to Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte (which was published before Tess), Helen stays with her husband just because of reputation while she is described as recognizing the red flags with her husband and remarked that she wants to leave if she could. Tenant of Wildfell Hall is the better book that actually does describe the women at the time, while Tess of D’urbelvilles just put it down to ‘love’ and Tess gets ‘rewarded’ in the end with Angels return.

If Hardy is going to make a point he definitely failed it with this book. This book isn’t a good representation of woman and I’m surprised some people think it is. Tess behaved like an idiot the entire book and when I thought I finally see the character development turns out she runs away again with the guy that hurt her. It’s infuriating.

Women in 19th century don’t act like Tess. Sure they are pressured to stay in marriages and that’s what happened with Tess and Angel, but the part where she literally is okay with Angel dating her little sister who had such big age gap is not, and neither does her killing Alec. The book implies she did it out of anger purely because Alec told her Angel won’t return and no other reason. Which imo is logical if anyone thinks Angel won’t return part as this man have left Tess for years.

Yes Tess is wronged but that doesn’t excuse what she did.

There’s a lot more novels that can describe women in 19th century better than this book. I don’t think Hardy describes women well in this book at all, in fact he does the complete opposite.

All this also doesn’t take away the fact that this book lacks a more interesting plot. I have read The Picture of Dorian Grey and I feel like the writer did a better job in symbolism in that book than Hardy did with women in Tess of D’urbelvilles.