Tess of the d'Urbervilles (Wordsworth Classics)
1 journaler for this copy...

It tells of Tess Durbeyfield, the daughter of a poor and dissipated villager, who learns that she may be descended from the ancient family of d'Urberville. She encounters Alec d'Urberville who seduces her, and she bears his child which dies in infancy. Working as a dairymaid, she falls in love and marries Angel Clare, a clergyman's son. On their wedding night she confesses her seduction to Clare, who cruelly abandons her, and after many hardships, she returns reluctantly to Alec as his mistress. When the repentant Clare returns to find Tess with Alec he prepares to leave once more, and in desperation Tess stabs Alec and kills him. After a pastoral interlude with Clare in the New Forest, the heroine's flood of anguish and despair ceases when "the President of the Mortals ... has ended his sport with Tess".