Tess of the d’Urbervilles

5 May, 2016 820 English and Old English literatures

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Tess of the d’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy, originally serialised in The Graphic in 1891 and, with some significant changes, published as a complete novel in 1892. The book was controversial even before serialisation, rejected by one publisher as too overtly sexual, to which a second added it did not publish ‘stories where the plot involves frequent and detailed reference to immoral situations.’ Hardy’s description of Tess as ‘A Pure Woman’ in 1892 incensed some Victorian readers. He resented having to censor some of his scenes in the early versions, including references to Tess’s baby following her rape by Alec d’Urberville, and even to a scene where Angel Clare lifted four milkmaids over a flooded lane (substituting transportation by wheelbarrow).

The image above, from the 1891 edition, is captioned ‘It Was Not Till About Three O’clock That Tess Raised Her Eyes And Gave A Momentary Glance Round. She Felt But Little Surprise At Seeing That Alec D’urberville Had Come Back, And Was Standing Under The Hedge By The Gate’.

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Guests

  • Dinah Birch 13 episodes
    Professor of English Literature and Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research and Impact at the University of Liverpool
  • Francis O'Gorman No other episodes
    Professor of Victorian Literature at the University of Leeds
  • Jane Thomas 4 episodes
    Reader in Victorian and early Twentieth Century literature at the University of Hull

Reading list

  • Thomas Hardy: A Critical Study
    Lascelles Abercrombie (Secker, 1912)
  • Haunted Hardy: Poetry, History, Memory
    Tim Armstrong (Macmillan, 2000)
  • Thomas Hardy and Women: Sexual Ideology and Narrative Form
    Penny Boumehla (Barnes & Noble, 1982)
  • Thomas Hardy: The World of his Novels
    J. B. Bullen (Frances Lincoln, 2013)
  • Thomas Hardy, from Serial to Novel
    Mary Ellen Chase (Russell & Russell, 1964)
  • Talks with Thomas Hardy at Max Gate, 1920-1922
    Vere H. Collins (Duckworth, 1978)
  • Thomas Hardy: The Critical Heritage
    R.G. Cox (ed.) (Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1970)
  • Thomas Hardy's 'Studies, Specimens, Etc. Notebook'
    Pamela Dalziel and Michael Millgate (eds.) (Clarendon, 1994)
  • Hardy the Creator: A Textual Biography
    Simon Gatrell (Clarendon, 1988)
  • Thomas Hardy: Interviews and Recollections
    James Gibson (ed.) (Macmillan, 1999)
  • Thomas Hardy: Distracted Preacher? Hardy's Religious Biography and Its Influence on His Novels
    Timothy Hands (Palgrave Macmillan, 1989)
  • Tess of the d'Urbervilles
    Thomas Hardy (ed. Scott Elledge) (W. W. Norton, 1979)
  • Tess of the D'Urbervilles
    Thomas Hardy (eds. Juliet Grindle and Simon Gatrell) (Oxford World's Classic, 2005)
  • Tess of the d'Urbervilles
    Thomas Hardy (eds. Phillip Mallett and Jane Thomas) (Norton, 2016)
  • The Complete Critical Guide to Thomas Hardy: A Sourcebook
    Geoffrey Harvey (Routledge, 2003)
  • Thomas Hardy, Authors in Context
    Patricia Ingham (Oxford University Press, 2003)
  • Reading Hardy's Landscapes
    Michael Irwin (Macmillan, 2000)
  • Thomas Hardy: The Forms of Tragedy
    Dale Kramer (Wayne State University Press, 1975)
  • The Cambridge Companion to Thomas Hardy
    Dale Kramer (ed.) (Cambridge University Press, 1999)
  • Thomas Hardy and his Readers: A Selection of Contemporary Reviews
    Lawrence Lerner and John Holmstrom (eds.) (Bodley Head, 1968)
  • Thomas Hardy's Tess of the d'Urbervilles: A Source Book
    Scott MacEthron (ed.) (Routledge, 2005)
  • Thomas Hardy in Context
    Philip Mallett (ed.) (Cambridge University Press, 2013)
  • Women and Sexuality in the Novels of Thomas Hardy
    Rosemarie Morgan (Routledge, 1988)
  • The Ashgate Research Companion to Thomas Hardy
    Rosemarie Morgan (ed,) (Ashgate, 2010)
  • Thomas Hardy: A Biography Revisited
    Michael Millgate (Oxford University Press, 2004)
  • Blackwell's Critical Guide to the Victorian Novel
    Francis O'Gorman (Blackwell, 2002)
  • The Oxford Reader's Companion to Hardy
    Norman Page (ed.) (Oxford University Press, 2000)
  • Thomas Hardy: The Guarded Life
    Ralph Pite (Picador, 2006)
  • Thomas Hardy, Femininity and Dissent: Reassessing the 'Minor' Novels
    Jane Thomas (Palgrave, 1999)
  • Thomas Hardy and Desire
    Jane Thomas (Palgrave, 2013)
  • Thomas Hardy: The Time-Torn Man
    Claire Tomalin (Viking, 2006)
  • The Life of Thomas Hardy: A Critical Biography
    Paul Turner (Blackwell, 2001)
  • Tess of the d'Urbervilles: New Casebooks
    Peter Widdowson (ed.) (Macmillan, 1993)
  • A Companion to Thomas Hardy
    Keith Wilson (ed.) (Wiley-Blackwell, 2009)

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Auto-category: 823.8 (English fiction–19th century–Victorian era)

Hello (First sentence from this episode) Hello. Thomas Hardy's Tess of the d'Urbervilles first appeared in 1891, serialised each week in The Graphic from July to November, and simultaneously New York and Sydney.