.'My life looks as if it had been wasted for want of chances! When I see what
you know, what you have read, and seen, and thought, I feel what a nothing I
am!'Challenging the hypocrisy and social conventions of the rural Victorian
world, Tess of the D'Urbervilles follows the story of Tess Durbeyfield as she
attempts to escape the poverty of her background, seeking wealth by claiming
connection with the aristocratic D'Urberville family. It is through Tess's
relationships with two very different men that Hardy tells the story of his
tragic heroine, and exposes the double standards of the world that she inhabits
with searing pathos and heart-rending sentiment.