Tess of the D'Urbervilles

Back in high school, all of my friends took AP English and I didn't. At the time it made sense. Mudd really didn't care about AP English, and since my high school capped us at 3 AP courses, I filled that space with physics and calculus. I don't regret that decision, but I did miss out on some interesting books. So I'm going back to fill in these gaps, and the latest "missed" book is Tess.

I can't even really remember how my friends reacted to this book. I'm not entirely sure how I would have reacted to it. Or how it was taught. I doubt I'd have been ready for it when I was 17. But now I shuddered almost immediately when Alec was introduced - ignoring Tess' boundaries from the start and then blaming her for his every transgression. Even Angel, presented as the perfect man, comes across as pretty awful.

Really this is a book about how much it sucks to be a woman. Tess is raped. Her child dies before it can be baptized. She falls in love and loses is immediately when her rape is revealed. She endures years of hard labor. Her every triumph is stolen away from her by drunken parents or moralizing assholes. She's finally driven to murder, and I can't say I blame her.

The language in this book is hard to get through at times. But there are some beautiful turns of phrase, and I did occasionally find myself lost in the fields of England. Hardy's not my favorite author, but I might be persuaded to try some more of his books in the future.

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