Classics, Literary 

Tess of the d'Urbervilles: A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented is a novel by Thomas Hardy, first published in 1891. It initially appeared in a censored and serialized version, published by the British illustrated newspaper, The Graphic. It is Hardy's penultimate novel, followed by Jude the Obscure. Though now considered a great classic of English literature, the book received mixed reviews when it first appeared, in part because it challenged the sexual mores of Hardy's day.Tess is the eldest daughter of John and Joan Durbeyfield, uneducated (and rather shiftless) peasants. One day, John, a poor carter, is on his way home to the village of Marlott when he meets Parson Tringham, who addresses him as "Sir John". When he asks for an explanation, Tringham, an amateur genealogist, informs him that he has noble blood; 'Durbeyfield' is a corruption of 'd'Urberville', the surname of a noble Norman family, now extinct. Although the parson means no harm, the news immediately goes to John's head. (Quote from wikipedia.org)About the AuthorThomas Hardy, OM (2 June 1840 - 11 January 1928) was an English novelist, short story writer, and poet of the naturalist movement, though he saw himself as a poet and wrote novels mainly for financial gain only. The bulk of his work, set mainly in the semi-imaginary county of Wessex, delineates characters struggling against their passions and circumstances. Hardy's poetry, first published in his fifties, has come to be as well regarded as his novels, especially after The Movement of the 1950s and 1960s.Thomas Hardy was born at Higher Bockhampton, a hamlet in the parish of Stinsford to the east of Dorchester in Dorset, England. His father worked as a stonemason and local builder. His mother was ambitious and well read, supplementing - from Amzon