I'm a French student of English, in my third year at university. I have to read "Tess of the D'Urbervilles" for my British literature class and it's just terrible. The author spends so much time describing Tess' beauty, virtue, kindness and courage, that I wonder why her name is not Mary Sue. There is no character development : instead, we are told a hundred times that Tess' eye colour is somewhere between blue, violet, grey and black -- seriously, can you picture that ?
Furthermore, the heroine's so-called "kindness" is nothing but stupid weakness in my opinion. Her love interest, Angel Clare -- who, for some obscure reason, is also loved by most of her dairymaid friends --, blames and rejects her for being raped, and yet she still worships him and behaves like his obedient slave, despite his cruelty to her. This is merely a ridiculous and unhealthy obsession, not a true love story.
To my mind, the only likeable character is Alec D'Urberville. Although he is supposed to be the "villain", I find him rather funny and much less annoying than Tess and Angel. Too bad that Thomas Hardy did not choose Alec as the main character. The novel would have been more enjoyable.Get more detail about Tess of the D'Urbervilles.
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