Facts about Tess of the d'Urbervilles
- 07
Tess's surname d'Urberville derives from the real Norman family d'Urberville, whose actual manor house stood in the village of Toller Porcorum in Dorset, Hardy's native county.
- 06
Alec d'Urberville's seduction of Tess occurs in The Chase, a woodland setting that Hardy based on Blackmoor Vale, a real region in Dorset where he spent much of his youth.
- 05
Hardy's original manuscript titled the novel 'Too Late, Beloved' before he changed it to Tess of the d'Urbervilles for its 1891 publication.
- 04
Tess's execution by hanging at the end of the novel occurs at Wintoncester, Hardy's fictional name for the real English city of Winchester.
- 03
Victorian critics condemned the novel for its sympathetic portrayal of Tess's premarital pregnancy, with some newspapers refusing to review or advertise the 1891 publication.
- 02
Angel Clare's character was based partly on Hardy's own theological doubts and his rejection of conventional Christian morality in Tess of the d'Urbervilles.
- 01
Thomas Hardy published Tess of the d'Urbervilles in 1891 as a serialized novel in The Graphic magazine before its book release.