CONFESSIONS OF A BOOKWORM “TESS OF THE D’UBERVILLES”

OR… THE DANGER OF EATING A STRAWBERRY.

Hello Bookworms!!

I just finished “Tess of the d’Ubervilles” by Thomas Hardy. And well, let’s talk about it…

The book is beautifully written  it has the Victorian style of saying a simple act like it was made out of poetry. For example “she grab an apple” it becomes “with her slender fingers she moved towards the air full of dust which moved like fairies dancing around the beautiful Tess while her delicate skin touched the red sinuosity of the prohibited fruit”.

Yes I just made that up.

But more or less that was I was talking about. Yes it is beautiful to read a poetical description of mundane things, but sometimes i found myself skipping sentences. To the point please!

I really like the characterization of the characters. This Tess is a bad-ass, i just love her, she thinks she is a victim when she is the strongest of all them all. She is passionate, generous, caring, independent and incredibly strong; She is raped, she has a child, she loses him, she works as hard as anyone can, she encounters bad people, good people, crazy people, fanatic people, her rapist as a religious-fanatic, her rapist as post-fanaticism, her rapist as her guardian, bad parents, bad lovers, bad husband…. She lives trough all of them without losing a peace of her beauty and just a piece of her sanity (i would have gone mad at the beginning of the second part). She is the victim of a society in which a woman has to life forever with the consequences of being raped and having a child before marriage while a man who rapes woman can be forgiven if he embraces religion.

Absolutely fair. (sarcasm sign here)

The writer is brilliant portraying this hypocritical society. But at the same time he is just and observer, he does not blame or fight for anything, he just tells everything as it is. It is like he is saying “well here is Tess, this is what is happening to her, your turn to think now”

The story is well known, I am not going to explain the plot.  It has been adapted by cinema and television several times. I have to admit that I have not seen any adaptation (even though I wanted to), and I had it in my to-read list for several years now. I have to admit. Oh my I am sorry to admit that my curiosity won when I read “50 Shades Of Grey” and between sadomasochistic sexual encounters they  quote this book. Over and Over.

—-OMG, those lost neurons will never come back again. ( I want to talk about Mr.Grey another time)—-

Well, all I have to say I liked the book. Is one of those books that left you with a bad mouth taste. It is not a happy ending, it is not what she deserves. All the struggles she passes she cannot end well, she has to pay for her “sins” while men are aroudn watching her pretty face suffer. I would recommend it for those who like more dense stories and those eagle-eyed readers who can enjoy a good description of hypocrisy.

Summarizing, is a good reading, but not an easy one. And whoever says it is a love story.It is not.

Love,

Lady C.