Thomas Hardy, one of the greatest Victorian novelists and the author of Tess D'Urbervilles, was born June 2, 1840, in the village of Upper Bockhampton, located in Southwestern England. His father was a stone mason and a violinist while his mother had had a passion for music, enjoying reading and relating all the folk songs and legends of the region. Between his parents, Hardy gained all the interests that would appear in his novels and his own life: his love for architecture and music, his interest in the lifestyles of the country folk, and his passion for all sorts of literature. He lived close to rural life and Wessex was the fictionalized region of southwest England in which Hardy set all of his fiction. Although industrialization had made the north of England and the region around London prosperous and modernized in the late nineteenth century, southwest England was still rural, agricultural, and quite poor. Hardy, who grew up and lived in the region, was particularly interested in showing the ways in which Wessex was caught between its old, traditional culture and modernization. Considered a radical writer, Hardy included the lower social classes and the plight of women, and he wrote about them in a provoking and defiant manner. Scientists, such as Charles Darwin, and social thinkers, such as John Stuart Mill, affected his thoughts and writings.
Tess of the D"Urbervilles is Hardy's saddest story of rural troubles. Originally printed in serial form in two magazines, this novel finally became published in its entirety in 1891. It is the twelfth novel published by Thomas Hardy and also one of his greatest works.
Tess is the beautiful daughter of the poor and lazy John Durbeyfield. From Parson Tringham, he learns that his family is related to ancient nobility, being the last of the family the D"Urbervilles. In trying to help the family and make use of this connection, Tess is sent to pursue the son of the local family of Mrs D"Urbervilles.