THOMAS HARDY

Durch Zufall erfährt die in ärmlichen Verhältnissen lebende Tess Durbeyfield, dass ihre Familie einem alten normannischen Adelsgeschlecht entstammt. Ihr Entschluss, vermeintliche Verwandte zu besuchen, hat fatale Folgen für die junge Frau: Sie trifft auf die zwei Männer, die den Gang ihres Schicksals unheilvoll lenken.

Excerpt from Far From the Madding Crowd In reprinting this story for a new edition I am reminded that it was in the chapters of "Far from the Madding Crowd." as they appeared month by month in a popular magazine, that I first ventured to adopt the word "Wessex" from the pages of early English history, and give it a fictitious significance as the...

Educated beyond her station, Grace Melbury returns to the woodland village of little Hintock and cannot marry her intended, Giles Winterborne. Her alternative choice proves disastrous, and in a moving tale that has vibrant characters, many humorous moments and genuine pathos coupled with tragic irony, Hardy eschews a happy ending.