Thomas Hardy
Tess of the d’Urbervilles
TESS OF THE D’URBERVILLES
First published in 1891, this book is still one of the most sensitive stories we have about the feelings of a young woman.
It is a very sad book: a young girl’s life is slowly, but surely, destroyed – not by her enemies, but by the people who say they love her. What kind of love is this that destroys the thing it loves?
The sadness lies in watching the mistakes happen and being unable to stop them. Tess is a girl who overflows with happiness. Her life could be so happy – but the right man hesitates, and the wrong man finds her first. ‘Don’t let her go!’ we want to shout, or ‘Tell him now, before it’s too late!’
But it is already too late: it happened a hundred years ago – it happens every day.
And we can do nothing but watch as the great world turns, destroys Tess, and turns again … as if she had never existed.
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide in Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto With offices in Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam OXFORD and OXFORD ENGLISH are registered trade marks of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries This simplified edition © Oxford University Press 2008 Database right Oxford University Press (maker) First published in Oxford Bookworms 1989 2 4 6 8 10 9 7 5 3 1 No unauthorized photocopying All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the ELT Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above You must not circulate this book in any other binding or cover and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer Any websites referred to in this publication are in the public domain and their addresses are provided by Oxford University Press for information only. Oxford University Press disclaims any responsibility for the content ISBN 978 0 19 479268 4 A complete recording of this Bookworms edition of Tess of d’Ubervilles is available on audio CD ISBN 978 0 19 479248 6 Printed in Hong Kong ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Photographs © Columbia Pictures Industries Inc The publishers would like to thank Columbia for their kind permission to reproduce photographs Word count (main text): 33,060 words
