Tess of the d'Urbervilles
Thomas Hardy
Oxford Bookworms LibraryLevel 6
A level 6 Oxford Bookworms Library graded reader. Retold for Learners of English by Clare West.
A pretty young girl has to leave home to make money for her family. She is clever and a good worker; but she is uneducated and does not know the cruel ways of the world. So, when a rich young man says he loves her, she is careful – but not careful enough. He is persuasive, and she is overwhelmed. It is not her fault, but the world says it is. Her young life is already stained by men's desires, and by death.
Thomas Hardy
Tess of the d’Urbervilles
TESS OF THE D’URBERVILLES
First published in 1891, this book is still one of the most sensitive stories we have about the feelings of a young woman.
It is a very sad book: a young girl’s life is slowly, but surely, destroyed – not by her enemies, but by the people who say they love her. What kind of love is this that destroys the thing it loves?
The sadness lies in watching the mistakes happen and being unable to stop them. Tess is a girl who overflows with happiness. Her life could be so happy – but the right man hesitates, and the wrong man finds her first. �Don’t let her go!’ we want to shout, or �Tell him now, before it’s too late!’
But it is already too late: it happened a hundred years ago – it happens every day. And we can do nothing but watch as the great world turns, destroys Tess, and turns again … as if she had never existed.
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First published in Oxford Bookworms 1989
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ISBN 978 0 19 479268 4
A complete recording of this Bookworms edition of Tess of d’Ubervilles is available on audio CD ISBN 978 0 19 479248 6
Printed in Hong Kong
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Photographs В© Columbia Pictures Industries Inc
The publishers would like to thank Columbia for their kind permission to reproduce photographs
Word count (main text): 33,060 words
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The Maiden
1
One evening at the end of May a middle-aged man was walking home from Shaston to the village of Marlott in the Vale of Blackmoor. His legs were thin and weak, and he could not walk in a straight line. He had an empty egg-basket on his arm, and his hat was old and worn. After a while he passed an elderly parson rid