Thomas Hardy (1840 - 1928) was the son of a master mason. He was born in Higher Bockhampton in Dorchester, which became the centre of his fictional Wessex. Growing up, Hardy absorbed much of the local folklore and became familiar with the harsher aspects of rural life for the poor, which included starvation and cruelty, and harsh criminal punishment for trivial offences.

It is in his formative years that Hardy developed a love of nature and a sympathy for animals. Hardy's family were landowners who had come down in the world, and Hardy's parents were both racked to the point of madness with their sense of social superiority.

When Tess of the D'Urbervilles appeared in 1891, Thomas Hardy was one of England’s leading men of letters. Tess brought him notoriety because it was considered scandalous, and the novel was one of Hardy's last because he was offended by the attacks he received from reviewers.

The book was denounced for its frank depiction of sex, and criticism of organised religion. The sexual references are very tame by today’s standards, and today Hardy is praised for his willingness to confront Victorian smugness, especially when he chose to subtitle his novel "The Story of a Good Woman": not only was his heroine a ‘fallen woman’, she was also a murderer, so how dare he describe such a woman as pure and good?

Tess of the D'Urbervilles appears to accuse all aspects of Victorian life: God, industrialisation, social institutions such as marriage, Christianity, the Church, law, education, and the list could go on. Tess is seen to do wrong because ‘she had been made to break an accepted social law, but no law known to the environment in which she fancied herself such an anomaly' (Chapter 13).

Tess is ostracised from society, and she is shown there is different sets of laws for different groups of people. There is no law to protect her from people like Alec, and the only person who can right that wrong is Tess, who does so by breaking a law for which society will punish her.

The summary notes for Tess of the D'Urbervilles cover the following key aspects from the text in detail:

• Genre
• Structure
• Historical Issues
• Style
• Background Notes
• Summary
• Character Profiles
• Themes and Issues
• Sample Examination Questions
• Final Examination Tips

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