I read a lot.
Sometimes, to deal with the impending stress of a law exam, I read to escape.
I recently completed Thomas Hardy's "Tess of the D'Urbervilles" and I hated it.
The story centers around a lovely, sweet, country girl named Tess whose proud, lazy, drunken father finds out he is related to an old family once filled with knights and nobility.
When he discovers that a nearby wealthy woman shares the same last name he decides to send Tess to them in hopes that she might benefit from the woman's connections.
Against her better judgment, Tess goes to the home of the woman and meets her pervy libertine son Alec who leers at her and tries to get fresh.
Tess leaves to return home but Alec convinces her to come back by providing gifts to her poor family.
One night he "rescues" her from a disagreement with some fellow villagers and takes her into a forest where she falls asleep while he goes off looking for the way home.
He comes back to discover her sleeping and proceeds to rape her.
Don't let anyone (I'm looking at you Wikipedia) tell you any different.
The end of the chapter where it happens says he did to her what some of her knighted forefathers did to other village girls on their way home from victory.
Further in the book one villager says to another that they heard crying on the night it happened and that Alec might have been in trouble had he been discovered by any of the local men at the time.
Of course, Tess gets pregnant and everyone judges her as a fallen woman.
The child is born, lives for a few weeks and then dies. Because Tess's father is too proud to go for the clergyman, Tess baptizes the child herself.
Eventually she moves on to another valley to work at a dairy where she meets a Methodist parson's son, Angel Claire, who has decided to dabble in animal husbandry.
He gets the special treatment on the farm so he doesn't really have to mix with the peasants unless he wants to. In his spare time he plays the harp badly and develops feelings for Tess.
Tess struggles to tell him what happened to her but can't find the words or proper time to do so.
He asks Tess to marry him but she says no. She's afraid she isn't good enough for him.
Meanwhile, there are three other young milkmaids who lust after Angel and try to harm themselves when they find out he really prefers Tess.
Eventually, the two get married and on their wedding night Angel tells Tess he had an affair with an older woman in London but has learned his lesson and is sure she will forgive him.
Tess, in a rush of relief and confidence tells him of her ordeal.
While Angel assumed that him sticking his penis in someone else would be cool with his wife, the thought that someone stuck their penis in her, even though it was against her will, is unacceptable to him.
What follows is some good old fashioned, double-standard, slut shaming.
I was made all the more livid by this because no one in the whole damned book seemed capable of realizing that 1) women's value doesn't degrade though sexual experience and 2) Tess was sexually assaulted against her will.
Angel goes off on a boo hoo fit to Brazil but before he leaves he tries to seduce one of the forlorn milkmaids to go off with him and live as his mistress. He ends up leaving her behind after she tells him that she could never love him more than Tess does.
Angel is just really a first rate guy.
And yes, later on Tess finds out about this but decides to forgive him and go on loving him.
Of course she does.
Tess is left behind with a little money and the understanding that she will live with her family.
Instead, Tess goes off to work on a hellish farm where she is despised by her boss and left to feel like damaged goods by the absence of her husband.
To make matters worse, Tess runs into Alec again and at this time he's become a travelling preacher who talks of hell and brimstone.
He soon begins to stalk Tess and, in one unforgettable scene, forces her to swear "not to tempt him again."
I really wanted to scream at that point.
Alec soon abandons his new found piety and starts showing up at Tess's work and insisting that she become his woman. She says no and tells him she is married and he starts the whole, "Oh, really? Where's your husband then?" line of questioning.
Tess's father dies, her mother and siblings get turned out of the house and the place they were supposed to rent is rented out to someone else.
Alec then sails in and promises to help Tess's family if she will become his property.
Finally she gives in and they go off to live by the seaside.
At about this time, Angel decides that maybe Tess isn't that bad and he'll give her another chance (so magnanimous of him) and he heads back to England to find her.
He soon learns of her whereabouts.
She meets him at the hotel and tells him she's living with Alec and that he can't have her.
He leaves all dejected and I experienced a welling up of Schadenfreude.
Out of nowhere, Tess suddenly becomes someone completely different from the long-suffering and good hearted woman she has been throughout the book and murders Alec.
Really?
Yes, really.
I half expected Miss Marple to show up and start sleuthing. That's how disjointed this felt.
After slaying Alec, Tess catches up with Angel and they hide out in a house for a week before they are discovered and Tess is captured and hanged.
Before she is taken away, Tess tells Angel he should take up with her younger sister and that's what he does.
Seriously. Team no one with this book.
My takeaway is that everyone in Victorian society was fond of pretending their poop didn't stink.
One didn't speak of one's problems to one's friends leaving one to suffer through them alone.
It was okay for men to screw whomever they liked, offer a half-hearted apology (or not) and move on.
Women were damned because they could not own property, have careers or vote and had to deal with some male-invented mythical concept of "purity."
Dickens had a way of issuing biting social commentary with wit and humor.
When Hardy does it I become misanthropic.
Sometimes, to deal with the impending stress of a law exam, I read to escape.
I recently completed Thomas Hardy's "Tess of the D'Urbervilles" and I hated it.
The story centers around a lovely, sweet, country girl named Tess whose proud, lazy, drunken father finds out he is related to an old family once filled with knights and nobility.
When he discovers that a nearby wealthy woman shares the same last name he decides to send Tess to them in hopes that she might benefit from the woman's connections.
Against her better judgment, Tess goes to the home of the woman and meets her pervy libertine son Alec who leers at her and tries to get fresh.
Tess leaves to return home but Alec convinces her to come back by providing gifts to her poor family.
One night he "rescues" her from a disagreement with some fellow villagers and takes her into a forest where she falls asleep while he goes off looking for the way home.
He comes back to discover her sleeping and proceeds to rape her.
Don't let anyone (I'm looking at you Wikipedia) tell you any different.
The end of the chapter where it happens says he did to her what some of her knighted forefathers did to other village girls on their way home from victory.
Further in the book one villager says to another that they heard crying on the night it happened and that Alec might have been in trouble had he been discovered by any of the local men at the time.
Of course, Tess gets pregnant and everyone judges her as a fallen woman.
The child is born, lives for a few weeks and then dies. Because Tess's father is too proud to go for the clergyman, Tess baptizes the child herself.
Eventually she moves on to another valley to work at a dairy where she meets a Methodist parson's son, Angel Claire, who has decided to dabble in animal husbandry.
He gets the special treatment on the farm so he doesn't really have to mix with the peasants unless he wants to. In his spare time he plays the harp badly and develops feelings for Tess.
Tess struggles to tell him what happened to her but can't find the words or proper time to do so.
He asks Tess to marry him but she says no. She's afraid she isn't good enough for him.
Meanwhile, there are three other young milkmaids who lust after Angel and try to harm themselves when they find out he really prefers Tess.
Eventually, the two get married and on their wedding night Angel tells Tess he had an affair with an older woman in London but has learned his lesson and is sure she will forgive him.
Tess, in a rush of relief and confidence tells him of her ordeal.
While Angel assumed that him sticking his penis in someone else would be cool with his wife, the thought that someone stuck their penis in her, even though it was against her will, is unacceptable to him.
What follows is some good old fashioned, double-standard, slut shaming.
I was made all the more livid by this because no one in the whole damned book seemed capable of realizing that 1) women's value doesn't degrade though sexual experience and 2) Tess was sexually assaulted against her will.
Angel goes off on a boo hoo fit to Brazil but before he leaves he tries to seduce one of the forlorn milkmaids to go off with him and live as his mistress. He ends up leaving her behind after she tells him that she could never love him more than Tess does.
Angel is just really a first rate guy.
And yes, later on Tess finds out about this but decides to forgive him and go on loving him.
Of course she does.
Tess is left behind with a little money and the understanding that she will live with her family.
Instead, Tess goes off to work on a hellish farm where she is despised by her boss and left to feel like damaged goods by the absence of her husband.
To make matters worse, Tess runs into Alec again and at this time he's become a travelling preacher who talks of hell and brimstone.
He soon begins to stalk Tess and, in one unforgettable scene, forces her to swear "not to tempt him again."
I really wanted to scream at that point.
Alec soon abandons his new found piety and starts showing up at Tess's work and insisting that she become his woman. She says no and tells him she is married and he starts the whole, "Oh, really? Where's your husband then?" line of questioning.
Tess's father dies, her mother and siblings get turned out of the house and the place they were supposed to rent is rented out to someone else.
Alec then sails in and promises to help Tess's family if she will become his property.
Finally she gives in and they go off to live by the seaside.
At about this time, Angel decides that maybe Tess isn't that bad and he'll give her another chance (so magnanimous of him) and he heads back to England to find her.
He soon learns of her whereabouts.
She meets him at the hotel and tells him she's living with Alec and that he can't have her.
He leaves all dejected and I experienced a welling up of Schadenfreude.
Out of nowhere, Tess suddenly becomes someone completely different from the long-suffering and good hearted woman she has been throughout the book and murders Alec.
Really?
Yes, really.
I half expected Miss Marple to show up and start sleuthing. That's how disjointed this felt.
After slaying Alec, Tess catches up with Angel and they hide out in a house for a week before they are discovered and Tess is captured and hanged.
Before she is taken away, Tess tells Angel he should take up with her younger sister and that's what he does.
Seriously. Team no one with this book.
My takeaway is that everyone in Victorian society was fond of pretending their poop didn't stink.
One didn't speak of one's problems to one's friends leaving one to suffer through them alone.
It was okay for men to screw whomever they liked, offer a half-hearted apology (or not) and move on.
Women were damned because they could not own property, have careers or vote and had to deal with some male-invented mythical concept of "purity."
Dickens had a way of issuing biting social commentary with wit and humor.
When Hardy does it I become misanthropic.
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