Tes of the D’urbervilles Summary

Tess of the D’Urbervilles

Chapters 1-5

John Durbeyfield is walking down a country road in the small English town of Marlott when he is stopped by a friend of his who tells John of his rich family history and how his ancestors are not just peasants and farmers, but wealthy people with power. John is excited of his new found heritage and celebrates by going to the bar. The second chapter mainly has to do with John’s daughter, Tess, who is in a field dancing along with many others for some celebration. Tess gets tired and decides to go home where she meets her mother, Joan Durbeyfield, who is taking care of the younger siblings. The mother asks Tess if she has seen the father, but Tess hasn’t, so the mother goes out to the bar to look for him. The mother goes to the bar and John informs her of their heritage and they decide that Tess, being the prettiest and nicest, should go and make friends and “claim kin” with their rich relatives. One day Tess and her brother, Abraham, are delivering the beehives their farm when her brother informs Tess of their plan for her to meet the relatives, though Tess is reluctant of the plan, they continue through the night to make the delivery. While they are riding, the horse gets stabbed by a large piece of wood and dies in the road. They complete the delivery with the help of a passerby. Later while they are home, Tess gets sent off to meet the relatives, when she gets there, she meets Alec d’Urbervilles; he thinks of Tess very fondly and gives her lots of roses and strawberries to take home with her. He sends her home with the proposition of having a job at his farm working with the animals. When Tess arrives home, her family is excited and wants her to go and work there so she can have a better life and possible marry Alec d’Urbervilles.

Chapters 6-13

Tess’s family has decided that she is to go off and work on her relative’s farm, and she feels that she must to pay for a new horse to replace the one that died. In a tear-filled departure, Tess leaves her home to be taken to her relative’s farm. Her driver is Alec d’Urbervilles who, despite being a relative, tries to kiss Tess, she only allows him to because Alec says that he will only slow the cart down if he is kissed. Tess arrives at the farm and meets Alec’s mother who is old and blind. Alec’s mother asks Tess to take care of the foul and practice whistling to them. Tess spends a few months working hard on the farm, while trying to avoid Alec who is coming on to her an unusual and intimate rate, that is for being a relative. Tess works for a while, until she is in town and at this dance, it was late, and her plan was to wait for the dance to be over and ask somebody for a ride, but the dance kept on going. Who would show up but Alec d’Urbervilles and his carriage ready to take her home, being the creepy guy tat he is, on the way home he intentionally got lost just so eh could be alone with Tess. Tess got sick of Alec and the work and decided to leave for home, but she did not get the warmest welcome, everyone thought she was to marry Alec and become a lady. Tess spent the next year working home at a farm. Although I think it was very vaguely stated, sometime while Tess was with Alec, he seduced her and got her pregnant. In the year Tess spent home, she gave birth to the child and named it sorrow. Sorrow dies a short while after it was born (the name seemed to fit).

Chapters 14-20

There is not much action in these chapters, but the plot does move on. Tess gets a letter at her house asking if she would like a job at a local dairy farm. Tess decides to go for the position and makes the long journey into a part of the country hat she has never been to before. During the long walk, there is very little dialogue and Tess just recollects and walks and does some more recollecting. When she gets to the dairy farm, Tess meets the whole crew that works there, including a boy named Angel. Angel was actually a boy she met when she was in the field dancing at the beginning of the book. The following chapter goes into Angel’s past and troubles with his family. His father wants him to go to Cambridge and become a priest. Even though everyone else in angel’s family has gone to Cambridge, he decides to become a farmer, so here he is on a dairy farm trying t master all aspects and finer points of farming. Tess and Angel become good friends while working on the farm.

Chapters 21-26

In these chapters, Angel and Tess’s relationship deepens. Tess secretly loves Angel, but she is too shy to let him know. Angel has mentioned