'Tess of the D'Urbervilles' by Thomas Hardy
As long-term readers of this blog know, I struggle with The Classics. I'm sure I'm not the only one, just as I'm sure everyone has their own reason for avoiding Austen, distancing from Dickens, or backing away from the Brontës.I myself have been hiding from Hardy ever since we did 'The Mayor of Casterbridge' at school. I don't remember much about the experience, but since then have always associated Hardy with impenetrable, long-winded prose and depressing plots. But a recent encounter with 'Tess of the D'Urbervilles' may have changed all that. Well, the first bit anyway.
