Summary: Tess of the D’Urbervilles

John Durbey­field, a poor ped­dler, is amazed to learn about his con­nec­tion to the noble d’Urberville lin­eage. His eldest daugh­ter, Tess, cap­ti­vates a youth­ful man at a rur­al cel­e­bra­tion. In a bid to bet­ter their sit­u­a­tion, her guardians dis­patch her to the d’Urberville estate with the assump­tion that the lady of the house, Mrs. d’Urberville, will assist their daugh­ter. Unbe­knownst to Tess, the indi­vid­u­als inhab­it­ing the d’Urberville man­sion have no famil­ial ties to her; the mer­chant Simon Stokes sim­ply adopt­ed the d’Urberville sur­name upon retirement.

Tess, feel­ing remorse­ful for a fam­i­ly mishap, reluc­tant­ly agrees to work car­ing for poul­try on the prop­er­ty, an offer extend­ed by Alec d’Urberville, Mrs. d’Urberville’s lech­er­ous off­spring. Despite rebuff­ing Alec’s advances, Tess suc­cumbs to him after a fair and con­ceives his child, whom she names Sor­row. The infant per­ish­es short­ly after birth, cast­ing Tess into a year of despon­den­cy before she secures employ­ment as a dairy maid at Tal­both­ays Dairy. Here, she encoun­ters joy and forges friend­ships with her com­rades. She also reunites with Angel Clare, the man she had enchant­ed at the rur­al fête. They fall in love, and despite wrestling with her past, Tess con­sents to Angel’s pro­pos­al of mar­riage. Fol­low­ing their nup­tials, both Tess and Angel dis­close their pre­vi­ous trans­gres­sions. Tess par­dons Angel for his liai­son with an elder lady, but Angel strug­gles to come to terms with Tess’s his­to­ry with Alec, prompt­ing her to embark on a new life in Brazil.

Tess, grap­pling with adver­si­ty, encoun­ters Alec, now a cler­gy­man, and is per­turbed by his mar­riage pro­pos­al. Faced with her fam­i­ly’s impend­ing evic­tion post her father’s demise, Tess is enticed by Alec’s offer of assis­tance but stead­fast­ly declines. Upon Angel’s return and the rev­e­la­tion of Tess’s cir­cum­stances, he is dis­heart­ened to find that she has revert­ed to Alec. Trag­i­cal­ly, Tess, in her anguish, slays Alec and elopes. Angel aids her in con­ceal­ment, but they are even­tu­al­ly appre­hend­ed. Tess is arrest­ed and put to death, leav­ing Angel and Tess’s sib­ling, Liza-Lu, to mourn her fate.

Chapter 1

Return­ing to Mar­lott, an aged ped­dler, John Durbey­field encoun­ters an elder­ly cler­gy­man who astounds him by address­ing him as “Sir John.” This elder­ly cler­gy­man, Par­son Tring­ham, a his­to­ry enthu­si­ast, reveals to him a doc­u­ment sug­gest­ing Durbey­field­’s descent from the illus­tri­ous d’Urbervilles. Tring­ham remarks that Durbey­field­’s noble lin­eage is so ancient that it holds lit­tle sig­nif­i­cance, yet Durbey­field grows rather self-assured upon hear­ing this. Con­se­quent­ly, he calls for a horse-drawn car­riage for his jour­ney back home.

Chapter 2

Tess, Durbey­field­’s daugh­ter, engages in the local May Day rev­el­ries along­side her fel­low vil­lagers. When her father pass­es by in a car­riage, the sight caus­es some embar­rass­ment for Tess. Nonethe­less, she stands up to the oth­er girls ridi­cul­ing him. The women then pro­ceed to the vil­lage square to dance, where they encounter three pros­per­ous broth­ers, one of whom is Angel Clare. Despite his sib­lings’ eager­ness to con­tin­ue their jour­ney, Angel decides to linger and par­take in a dance with the ladies. He choos­es a part­ner who, to Tess’s cha­grin, isn’t her. After a brief dance, Angel takes his leave to reunite with his broth­ers, but not before notic­ing Tess and regret­ting his choice of dance companion.

Chapter 3

Tess returns home to find her moth­er, Joan, who imparts two trou­bling rev­e­la­tions: her father’s dis­cov­ery of noble ances­try and his grave heart ail­ment. Joan seeks coun­sel from a hefty, anti­quat­ed tome, the Com­pleat For­tune-Teller, hid­den in the out­house due to her belief in astrol­o­gy. Mr. Durbey­field is absent, pre­sum­ably rev­el­ing in his new­found her­itage at Rolliver’s, the local pub. The fam­i­ly shows no sur­prise at his where­abouts. Joan departs to fetch her hus­band from the pub but does­n’t return. The author hints at Joan’s delay aris­ing from her savor­ing the time spent with her hus­band at Rol­liv­er’s. Grow­ing anx­ious, Tess dis­patch­es her younger broth­er, Abra­ham, to the pub to check on their par­ents. Sub­se­quent­ly, with no one back, Tess decides to fol­low in their footsteps.

Chapter 4

Abra­ham, Tess’s younger sib­ling, over­hears their par­ents dis­cussing plans for Tess to inform Mrs. d’Urberville about their com­mon her­itage in a bid to secure Tess’s for­tune. Upon return­ing home, Tess sus­pects her intox­i­cat­ed father would be inca­pable of tak­ing his bee­hives to mar­ket. Her sus­pi­cions are val­i­dat­ed, prompt­ing her and Abra­ham to trans­port the bee­hives them­selves. Dur­ing their jour­ney, Abra­ham divulges their par­ents’ inten­tions and tran­si­tions the dis­cus­sion to astron­o­my. He ques­tions whether oth­er celes­tial bod­ies are supe­ri­or or infe­ri­or to their own, to which Tess responds that they reside on a “cursed one,” attribut­ing it to their fam­i­ly’s mis­for­tunes. After Abra­ham drifts off, Tess con­tem­plates, falls asleep, and dreams of a dis­dain­ful gen­tle­man. They are abrupt­ly awak­ened when their car­riage col­lides with a postal cart, lead­ing to the demise of their aged horse Prince. Under­stand­ing the finan­cial strain this loss will impose, Tess is con­sumed by remorse. The acci­dent site mir­rors Tess’s pal­lor, appear­ing stark and col­or­less. With the aid of a farmer, they man­age to trans­port the bee­hives to Cast­er­bridge, hitch­ing their car­riage to his wag­on. Tess returns home in shame, shoul­der­ing a bur­den of guilt greater than any­one else regard­ing the inci­dent. She alone com­pre­hends the ram­i­fi­ca­tions of los­ing Prince. With the farmer’s assis­tance, they trans­port Prince’s remains back home. Mr. Durbey­field refus­es to sell or dis­pose of the car­cass, instead exert­ing greater effort than he has in a month to inter his beloved steed.

Chapter 5

Tess, laden with guilt from the horse mishap, reluc­tant­ly agrees to her moth­er’s sug­ges­tion of seek­ing aid from Mrs. d’Urberville. Upon arrival, she is met with a mod­ern, ele­gant abode, con­trary to her expec­ta­tions of a dilap­i­dat­ed estate. She encoun­ters Mrs. d’Urberville’s son, Alec, who is cap­ti­vat­ed by her beau­ty and pledges assis­tance. Alec men­tions his moth­er’s poor health but assures Tess he will endeav­or to help.

Chapter 6

Return­ing to her res­i­dence, Tess uncov­ers an unopened let­ter. It’s from Mrs. d’Urberville, offer­ing a posi­tion in tend­ing to the d’Urbervilles’ poul­try. Tess seeks local employ­ment, but her quest proves fruit­less. To amass ade­quate funds for a new horse for her fam­i­ly, Tess accedes to the pro­posed role with the d’Urbervilles and resolves to revis­it Trantridge.

Chapter 7

On the day Tess is sched­uled to depart for the d’Urbervilles’ house­hold, her moth­er con­vinces her to put on her best cloth­ing. Thrilled by her own work in dress­ing Tess, Mrs. Durbey­field and her part­ner con­tem­plate sell­ing their fam­i­ly title. The entrance of Alec to col­lect Tess stirs uncer­tain­ties about her choice. The chil­dren and Mrs. Durbey­field are weep­ing, the lat­ter anx­ious that Alec might exploit her daughter.

Chapter 8

Through­out their voy­age to the d’Urberville man­sion, Alec takes a risky approach to dri­ving, despite Tess’s plea for him to lessen his speed. Anx­ious for her safe­ty, she clings to him, fol­low­ing his instruc­tions. As they rush down a steep slope, Alec asks Tess to hold onto him once again. She declines and pleads with him to slow down. Alec strikes a deal to reduce speed, but only if she gives him a kiss. Tess reluc­tant­ly agrees, allow­ing him a peck on her cheek. Yet, she absent­mind­ed­ly wipes away his kiss with her hand­ker­chief, infu­ri­at­ing Alec. He becomes offend­ed by her rejec­tion of his advances. A quar­rel erupts, and Tess fin­ish­es the rest of the jour­ney on foot.

Chapter 9

Tess meets Mrs. d’Urberville for the first time and dis­cov­ers that she is visu­al­ly impaired. The old lady’s indif­fer­ence to Tess’s arrival at her ser­vice catch­es Tess off guard. Mrs. d’Urberville asks Tess to bring each fowl to her for pet­ting and exam­i­na­tion. She also instructs Tess to ser­e­nade her bullfinch­es each morn­ing. Tess agrees and leaves. How­ev­er, Tess lat­er strug­gles with the whistling, and Alec offers to aid her in recollection.

Chapter 10

After spend­ing some time with the d’Urbervilles, Tess explores the near­by mar­ket. She devel­ops an affec­tion for it and decides to vis­it more fre­quent­ly. Sev­er­al months lat­er, her mar­ket trip coin­cides with a town fair. She declines Alec’s pro­pos­al to accom­pa­ny her home, opt­ing to wait for her friends instead. How­ev­er, once her friends arrive, they are drunk and com­plain about her receiv­ing all of Alec’s atten­tion, caus­ing the mood to sour. Alec then arrives on his horse, and Tess reluc­tant­ly agrees to accept his offer for a ride home.

Chapter 11

Alec guides the horse off-path into the thick for­est to con­vince Tess to accept his roman­tic advances. Tess, how­ev­er, remains hes­i­tant. Alec admits they have wan­dered too deep into the misty for­est. He offers Tess his coat and sets off to locate a rec­og­niz­able land­mark. In his per­sis­tent attempts to woo her, he dis­clos­es that he has bought a new horse for her father. Upon his return, he finds Tess asleep and takes advan­tage of the sit­u­a­tion to assault her sexually.

Chapter 12

After sev­er­al weeks of aim­less flir­ta­tion with Alec, Tess acknowl­edges her lack of affec­tion for him and decides to escape from the d’Urberville man­sion back to her home ear­ly in the morn­ing. Alec inter­cepts her en route and ques­tions her pre­ma­ture depar­ture, try­ing to per­suade her to come back. She declines his entreaties, includ­ing his offer to accom­pa­ny her home. He reminds Tess to con­tact him if she ever needs help. On her way home, Tess encoun­ters a sign painter inscrib­ing Bible vers­es on var­i­ous walls and fences across the rur­al land­scape. Dur­ing their con­ver­sa­tion, he paus­es to cre­ate a sign with the words, “THY DAMNATION SLUMBERETH NOT.” This say­ing lingers in Tess’s mind and she queries the painter about his faith in the words he writes. He affirms his belief and when Tess seeks advice about her predica­ment, he directs her to a priest at a near­by church. Tess returns home to a sur­prised and ini­tial­ly angered moth­er who scolds her for not mar­ry­ing Alec. How­ev­er, she becomes more under­stand­ing when Tess points out her moth­er’s fail­ure to alert her about the poten­tial dangers.

Chapter 13

Tess’s spir­its briefly lift when her friends vis­it. Nev­er­the­less, her despon­den­cy swift­ly returns the fol­low­ing day as she envi­sions her future as con­tin­u­ous and bleak. She attempts to go to church, but the whis­pers of the con­gre­ga­tion about her unset­tle her. Con­se­quent­ly, she adopts the habit of ven­tur­ing out only after nightfall.

Chapter 14

In the ensu­ing August, Tess resolves to cast off self-pity and assists in her vil­lage’s har­vest. Her ille­git­i­mate son, fathered by Alec, falls ill, mak­ing Tess afraid he might die with­out being chris­tened. She under­takes the cer­e­mo­ny her­self, nam­ing him ‘Sor­row’. The day fol­low­ing his demise, she seeks the cler­gy­man’s opin­ion on whether her chris­ten­ing enti­tles her son to a Chris­t­ian bur­ial. The cler­gy­man, moved by her sit­u­a­tion, per­mits Tess to bury Sor­row, though he is unable to do so him­self. In the soli­tude of the night, Tess lays Sor­row to rest in a seclud­ed sec­tion of the church­yard and fash­ions a small cross for his grave.

Chapter 15

Tess real­izes that her home­town of Mar­lott can no longer offer her the hap­pi­ness she craves, and she yearns to start anew where her past is veiled. A year lat­er, an oppor­tu­ni­ty aris­es for Tess to serve as a milk­maid at Tal­both­ays Dairy. She seizes this chance, part­ly attract­ed by its close­ness to the ances­tral d’Urbervilles estate and moti­vat­ed by “the invin­ci­ble instinct towards self-delight.”

Chapter 16

Joy­ful­ly, Tess embarks on a fresh chap­ter to com­mence her role at Tal­both­ays Dairy, nes­tled in the renowned Val­ley of the Great Dairies. She is cap­ti­vat­ed by the new sights that greet her as she trav­els through the misty Black­moor. The enchant­i­ng day cou­pled with the breath­tak­ing scenery uplifts Tess’s mood. She comes across her ances­tors’ grave­yard but choos­es to con­tin­ue her journey.

Chapter 17

Tess arrives at Tal­both­ays Dairy where she is greet­ed warm­ly by the head dairy­man, Richard Crick. Instead of rest­ing as he sug­gests, Tess opts to begin work imme­di­ate­ly. She adjusts swift­ly, feel­ing at ease in her new envi­ron­ment. She rec­og­nizes a famil­iar face among her col­leagues, iden­ti­fy­ing him as the eru­dite man from the Mar­lott May Day cel­e­bra­tion. By eaves­drop­ping on her fel­low dairy­maids’ con­ver­sa­tion, she learns his name is Angel Clare, the descen­dant of a respect­ed Wes­sex cler­gy­man. Despite his fam­i­ly’s reli­gious back­ground, Angel opts for rur­al life and is at the dairy to gain hands-on expe­ri­ence. The male dairy work­er becomes a top­ic of inter­est, with many of the female work­ers devel­op­ing a fond­ness for him.

Chapter 18

The nar­ra­tive briefly shifts from Tess to recount­ing Angel’s back­ground. Of his sib­lings, Angel is the most gift­ed but he choos­es not to pur­sue high­er edu­ca­tion. because of his father’s per­cep­tion that it’s sole­ly ben­e­fi­cial for train­ing to enter the priest­hood. He chal­lenges eccle­si­as­ti­cal doc­trines and believes it would be dis­hon­est to pur­sue a career in the cler­gy. Seek­ing a liveli­hood in com­merce, he ven­tures to Lon­don and engages in a roman­tic entan­gle­ment with an elder lady. Ulti­mate­ly, he choos­es agri­cul­ture as it grants him the space to nur­ture his intel­lec­tu­al pur­suits, away from the restric­tions of urban life. At the age of twen­ty-six, he acquaints him­self with the prin­ci­ples of farm­ing through vis­its to per­ti­nent loca­tions. Admired for his cour­te­ous demeanor and thought­ful­ness, most of the dairy labor­ers hold him in high esteem. Ini­tial­ly reserved and some­what shy, Angel grad­u­al­ly warms up to his col­leagues, becom­ing more socia­ble with them. He is swift­ly cap­ti­vat­ed by Tess’s beau­ty, per­ceiv­ing her to pos­sess a rare puri­ty and inno­cence. How­ev­er, Tess pur­pose­ful­ly main­tains a dis­tance from him, plagued by guilt over her undis­closed trag­ic history.

Chapter 19

Sev­er­al weeks lat­er, Tess uncov­ers Angel’s prac­tice of arrang­ing her pre­ferred cows for her, con­tra­ven­ing the rules of the dairy. She address­es this with him and lat­er spends the evening in the gar­den, lis­ten­ing to his harp melodies. He joins her, spark­ing an inti­mate con­ver­sa­tion. Intrigued by Tess’s pes­simistic out­look on life, con­sid­er­ing her youth­ful charm, Angel probes her about it. She evades his ques­tions by mak­ing gen­er­al obser­va­tions about life and then inquires about his own expe­ri­ences. Tess’s curios­i­ty cen­ters around Angel’s edu­ca­tion and his deci­sion to pur­sue farm­ing instead of join­ing his father and sib­lings in the cler­gy. When he offers to impart knowl­edge to her, she declines, assert­ing that the wis­dom she seeks can­not be found in books.

Chapter 20

Over the ensu­ing months, the bond between Angel and Tess deep­ens, mark­ing the most joy­ful phase of Tess’s life. Ris­ing ear­ly before the rest, they savor a sense of iso­la­tion, as if they were the soli­tary inhab­i­tants of the world. The dairy evolves into a haven, with Angel and Tess embody­ing the roles of Adam and Eve. To Angel, Tess embod­ies the “vision­ary essence of woman,” and he ten­der­ly bestows upon her the names “Artemis” and “Deme­ter.” Unaware of the sig­nif­i­cance of these epi­thets, Tess requests him to sim­ply address her by her name. They delight in the ear­ly morn­ings, wit­ness­ing the dis­si­pat­ing sum­mer mist and the play­ful antics of birds in the misty air.

Chapter 21

An unusu­al chal­lenge befalls the dairy farm: the but­ter fails to solid­i­fy as it should. Mrs. Crick jests that such anom­alies arise only when one is smit­ten. Indeed, two hearts have inter­twined in affec­tion. Angel’s fond­ness for Tess becomes a fre­quent top­ic of dis­cus­sion among the milk­maids, who spec­u­late on their poten­tial future. Tess, how­ev­er, recoils from the idea of mar­riage due to the endur­ing shame of her past. Even­tu­al­ly, the but­ter sets suc­cess­ful­ly, allay­ing all wor­ries except for Tess’s lin­ger­ing apprehensions.

Chapter 22

At dawn, the Cricks receive a com­plaint from a dis­sat­is­fied cus­tomer claim­ing the but­ter he pur­chased had an off taste. Mr. Crick sur­mis­es this may be due to the cat­tle graz­ing on gar­lic-infused weeds. The dairy work­ers ven­ture into the fields to uproot these trou­ble­some plants. Feel­ing fatigued, Tess is advised by Mr. Crick to rest. Angel remains by her side, dur­ing which she extols the virtues of her com­pan­ions, Izz and Ret­ty. Angel acknowl­edges their charm and pro­fi­cien­cy but dis­plays no roman­tic incli­na­tion toward them.

Chapter 23

Two months into her tenure at the dairy, Tess and her com­pa­tri­ots decide to vis­it Mell­stock Church. A sec­tion of the road remains sub­merged due to the heavy rain the pre­vi­ous day. Angel aids them in cross­ing, ded­i­cat­ing notably more time to Tess, elu­ci­dat­ing his favoritism to the oth­er girls. Tess starts to dis­tance her­self from Angel, yet she can’t help but admire his demeanor towards the oth­er girls who clear­ly hold affec­tion for him. One night, Mar­i­an, Izz, and Ret­ty con­fess their sen­ti­ments for Angel. Tess shares these sen­ti­ments but has resolved not to mar­ry, lead­ing to a sense of remorse as she pon­ders if she is wrong in con­sum­ing a con­sid­er­able part of Angel’s attention.

Chapter 24

As the sum­mer pro­gress­es, Angel and Tess engage in tend­ing to the bovines. Amidst this rou­tine, Angel is enveloped by his affec­tion for Tess. He embraces her, and for a fleet­ing moment, Tess sur­ren­ders to her emo­tions but prompt­ly with­draws. Angel declares his love for Tess, a con­fes­sion that catch­es even him off guard. Their inter­lude goes unno­ticed, and they resume their tasks, slight­ly unsettled.

Chapter 25

Angel decides he requires some time apart from Tess to reflect on their rela­tion­ship, thus depart­ing from the dairy to vis­it his kin. Upon reach­ing his father’s abode in Emmin­ster, he encoun­ters his par­ents and broth­ers, Felix and Cuth­bert, both priests, hav­ing break­fast. His fam­i­ly notes a sub­tle rugged­ness in his demeanor due to min­gling with com­mon farm labor­ers. Con­verse­ly, Angel per­ceives his broth­ers as intel­lec­tu­al­ly con­fined and sat­is­fied in their afflu­ent circumstances.

Chapter 26

Angel engages in a dis­cus­sion with his father post evening prayers regard­ing a poten­tial betrothed. His fam­i­ly favors a union with Mer­cy Chant, a devout local girl, stress­ing the impor­tance of a wife with firm Chris­t­ian con­vic­tions. Angel, how­ev­er, extols the virtues of a wife con­ver­sant with agri­cul­ture, intro­duc­ing them to the con­cept of Tess, whom he lauds for her spir­i­tu­al earnest­ness. His fam­i­ly agrees to meet her. His father dis­clos­es that he has set aside funds intend­ed for Angel’s uni­ver­si­ty edu­ca­tion. As Angel opt­ed against pur­su­ing high­er edu­ca­tion, his father offered him this saved sum to pro­cure land. Before part­ing ways, his father recounts his mis­sion­ary endeav­ors in the com­mu­ni­ty and nar­rates his unsuc­cess­ful efforts to reform a way­ward indi­vid­ual named Alec d’Urberville. This fur­ther insti­gates Angel’s dis­dain for aris­to­crat­ic families.

Chapter 27

Angel returns to the dairy and finds Tess awak­en­ing from her slum­ber. He embraces her and pro­pos­es mar­riage. Tess con­fess­es her love for him but main­tains that they can­not wed. Angel, assur­ing her time for delib­er­a­tion, is met with the same response regard­ing the imprac­ti­cal­i­ty of their union. Nonethe­less, in the ensu­ing days, he per­sists, and Tess finds her resolve waver­ing due to her pro­found affec­tion for him.

Chapter 28

With the onset of autumn, Angel renews his pro­pos­al to Tess. Despite his insis­tence, Tess remains unde­cid­ed, sug­gest­ing that anoth­er girl may be a more suit­able match. Her hes­i­ta­tion stems from her appre­hen­sion about the reper­cus­sions of divulging her past trans­gres­sions. Angel, how­ev­er, mis­con­strues her reluc­tance as a con­cern about her infe­ri­or social sta­tus and antic­i­pates her even­tu­al sur­ren­der. Tess under­stands the neces­si­ty of reveal­ing her fam­i­ly back­ground and past mys­ter­ies to Angel, yet opts to post­pone this for a lat­er time.

Chapter 29

Spec­u­la­tions about a failed wed­ding spread across the farm. Jack Dol­lop enters into a mar­riage with a wealthy wid­ow, hop­ing to reap the ben­e­fits of her sub­stan­tial inher­i­tance. How­ev­er, post their wed­ding, her finan­cial assets van­ish. Many at the dairy feel that the wid­ow should have been truth­ful with Jack Dol­lop before tying the knot. Tess, upon hear­ing these view­points, expe­ri­ences unease about her own con­cealed past and delib­er­ates on whether she should reveal it to Angel.

Chapter 30

While engaged in their dai­ly duties, Angel casu­al­ly remarks to Tess about their prox­im­i­ty to the ancient d’Urbervilles ances­tral grounds. Tess seizes the oppor­tu­ni­ty to dis­close her lin­eage as a d’Urberville. Angel is pleased by this rev­e­la­tion, com­pre­hend­ing that her aris­to­crat­ic descent would enhance her stand­ing in his fam­i­ly’s view. Over­whelmed, Tess final­ly accepts his pro­pos­al of mar­riage, shed­ding tears. She seeks his approval to write a let­ter to her moth­er. Upon learn­ing that her home­town is Mar­lott, Angel rec­ol­lects their pri­or encounter—a May Day cel­e­bra­tion where they missed danc­ing together.

Chapter 31

Upon receiv­ing Tess’s let­ter, Mrs. Durbey­field prompt­ly advis­es her against reveal­ing her his­to­ry to Angel. Through­out Octo­ber, Tess finds solace in hap­pi­ness but hes­i­tates when Angel sug­gests set­ting a wed­ding date, express­ing her reluc­tance to dis­rupt the cur­rent state of affairs. Angel’s pub­lic announce­ment of their engage­ment to Mr. Crick and the dairy­maids trig­gers a jubi­lant reac­tion that aston­ish­es Tess. This enables her to open­ly share her hap­pi­ness, but short­ly after, she starts feel­ing unwor­thy of Angel. Ulti­mate­ly, Tess resolves to divulge her past to him.

Chapter 32

Tess agrees to leave the dairy with Angel near­ing the fes­tive sea­son, sched­ul­ing their wed­ding for the final day of Decem­ber. Angel plans to make use of this time by vis­it­ing a grain mill and lodg­ing in a prop­er­ty that once belonged to the d’Urbervilles’ estate. He pro­cures wed­ding attire for Tess and, to her relief, dis­creet­ly obtains a mar­riage license instead of pub­licly announc­ing his mar­riage inten­tions with Tess.

Chapter 33

Dur­ing a shop­ping out­ing, Angel and Tess encounter a man from Alec d’Urberville’s vil­lage. The man smears Tess’s rep­u­ta­tion, cast­ing doubt on her puri­ty, which prompts Angel to strike him. How­ev­er, upon the man’s apol­o­gy, Angel offers him some mon­ey. Racked with guilt, Tess writes a con­fes­sion that night and slips it under Angel’s door. Yet, when he behaves nor­mal­ly the next morn­ing, Tess real­izes her mis­sive went unno­ticed under the mat. On their wed­ding day, Tess tries to con­fess her past to Angel, but he brush­es it off, sug­gest­ing they address it post-cer­e­mo­ny. They are escort­ed to the church by the dairy­man and his wife and exchange vows. As the cer­e­mo­ny con­cludes, a cock unex­pect­ed­ly crows in the midafternoon.

Chapter 34

Fol­low­ing their nup­tials, the cou­ple trav­els to the aban­doned d’Urberville estate for some pri­vate moments. Tess receives a par­cel from Angel’s par­ents con­tain­ing jew­el­ry, and a gift from Angel’s god­moth­er for his future spouse. The joy of the new­ly­weds is inter­rupt­ed by the arrival of their lug­gage from the dairy, accom­pa­nied by a mes­sen­ger bear­ing dis­tress­ing news about Tess’s friends. Post-wed­ding, Ret­ty attempt­ed self-harm and Mar­i­an resort­ed to drink­ing. This dis­clo­sure prompts Angel to seek for­give­ness from Tess, reveal­ing a past amorous trans­gres­sion with an old­er woman dur­ing his Lon­don days. Tess rec­i­p­ro­cates with her admis­sion regard­ing her his­to­ry with Alec.

Chapter 35

Angel is shak­en by Tess’s rev­e­la­tion. He implores her to take back her words, but she remains stead­fast­ly hon­est. He abrupt­ly leaves their abode, with Tess fol­low­ing in his foot­steps. They roam the vast grounds of the man­sion for hours. Tess pledges to com­ply with what­ev­er he demands, even sug­gest­ing the idea of end­ing her own life. Angel instructs her to return indoors. Upon his return, he finds Tess asleep. After briefly con­tem­plat­ing the por­traits of the d’Urberville women, he decides to retire to a sep­a­rate room.

Chapter 36

A trio of gloomy days pass, with Angel occu­py­ing him­self at the mill, engrossed in his books. Tess con­tem­plates the notion of divorce but real­izes its legal impos­si­bil­i­ty. Ulti­mate­ly, Tess pro­pos­es that she could return to her home, a sug­ges­tion to which Angel agrees.

Chapter 37

Approach­ing her, Clare whis­pers, “Dead, dead, dead!” Tess awak­ens in the dead of night to find Angel sleep­walk­ing. Mis­tak­ing her for a spir­it, he leads her to a grave­yard and places her in a cof­fin. After the ordeal, Tess guides him back home, and by day­break, Angel has no rec­ol­lec­tion of the inci­dent. Their jour­ney to Mar­lott involves a brief stop at the dairy, where their dis­com­fort with each oth­er’s pres­ence is pal­pa­ble. Upon reach­ing her vil­lage, Angel bids adieu to Tess. He promis­es to endeav­or to come to terms with her past and beseech­es her to await his readi­ness to fetch her.

Chapter 38

Tess, laden with sor­row, returns to her fam­i­ly and divulges her predica­ment. Her moth­er, Mrs. Durbey­field, deems her fool­ish, while her father grap­ples with com­pre­hend­ing Tess’s mat­ri­mo­ny. Tess’s domes­tic life proves to be wretched. Yet, upon receiv­ing a let­ter from Angel detail­ing his quest for a farm in the north, Tess views this as an oppor­tu­ni­ty to escape. Inform­ing her fam­i­ly that she will rejoin her spouse, she leaves half of the mon­ey Angel had giv­en her for her fam­i­ly before depart­ing from her abode.

Chapter 39

A few weeks post-wed­ding, Angel appris­es his par­ents of his inten­tion to voy­age to Brazil with­out Tess. This news per­turbs and dis­turbs his par­ents, yet Angel reas­sures them that they will become acquaint­ed with Tess upon his return in a year. To Angel’s sur­prise, his par­ents share a pas­sage from the Bible extolling the virtues of lov­ing, faith­ful, and indus­tri­ous wives. His moth­er inter­prets the vers­es as refer­ring to Tess, demon­strat­ing her com­plete back­ing of Angel’s deci­sion to mar­ry her instead of a high-born lady. Over­whelmed, Angel excus­es him­self and departs. His moth­er fol­lows, sus­pect­ing that Angel has been apprised of a dis­rep­utable inci­dent in Tess’s past, which he vehe­ment­ly denies.

Chapter 40

Angel hides the gems in a bank and arranges for Tess to get some extra mon­ey before going to Well­bridge Farm to fin­ish some tasks. He meets Izz by chance and pro­pos­es that she join him in Brazil. Izz agrees and express­es her love for Angel. When Angel ques­tions if her love sur­pass­es Tess’s, Izz replies that Tess’s love for him is unmatched. Dis­heart­ened, Angel escorts Izz back home and lat­er sets off solo to Brazil.

Chapter 41

Tess finds work at var­i­ous dairies, con­ceal­ing her mar­i­tal sta­tus from her fam­i­ly. As her funds dimin­ish, she reluc­tant­ly uses the mon­ey Angel gave her. Upon receiv­ing her par­ents’ plea for finan­cial aid to repair their home­’s roof, she gives most of her mon­ey to them. Mean­while, Angel faces chal­lenges in Brazil with a fail­ing British farm­ing com­mu­ni­ty. Despite her finan­cial strug­gles, Tess hes­i­tates to seek help from the Clares. Mar­i­an informs Tess about a demand­ing farm job, and although hes­i­tant about its rep­u­ta­tion, Tess decides to take it. Along the way, she encoun­ters the man who had maligned her to Angel, evad­ing him fear­ful­ly. Feel­ing pur­sued, Tess com­pas­sion­ate­ly ends the suf­fer­ing of a group of wound­ed pheas­ants, reflect­ing on her own plight.

Chapter 42

Tess alters her appear­ance to deter unwant­ed atten­tion, dress­ing plain­ly and remov­ing her eye­brows. Upon reach­ing a farm near Flint­comb-Ash, Mar­i­an grows curi­ous about Angel, but Tess dis­cour­ages ques­tions. Tess secures a job from the farm own­er and noti­fies her par­ents of her new where­abouts with­out divulging her mar­i­tal woes.

Chapter 43

Tess, Mar­i­an, and Izz toil hard in harsh con­di­tions, lat­er mov­ing to the barn when win­ter sets in. Tess faces crit­i­cism for her per­for­mance from the far­m’s own­er, push­ing her to promise bet­ter efforts. Mar­i­an shares news of Angel invit­ing Izz to Brazil, prompt­ing Tess to con­sid­er reach­ing out to Angel before sec­ond thoughts surface.

Chapter 44

Tess sets off to locate Angel’s fam­i­ly to dis­cov­er his where­abouts. Over­hear­ing Angel’s broth­ers dis­cussing his unfor­tu­nate mar­riage, Tess is strick­en with embar­rass­ment and aban­dons her plan. On her way back, she over­hears a ser­mon in a barn, spot­ting Alec d’Urberville.

Chapter 45

Unex­pect­ed­ly, Tess encoun­ters Alec, now a reli­gious con­vert, who desires to save her soul. Tess rebuffs him, doubt­ing his sud­den con­ver­sion. Tess com­plies with Alec’s request near a stone mark­er called the Cross-in-Hand. She learns of the mark­er’s ill-fat­ed significance.

Chapter 46

Alec pro­pos­es to Tess, sug­gest­ing a move to Africa as mis­sion­ar­ies. Tess reveals her mar­riage, urg­ing Alec to depart. Tess strug­gles to pen a let­ter to Angel, the task remain­ing unfin­ished. Alec returns, seek­ing Tess’s prayers, lead­ing to a dis­cus­sion on faith and regret.

Chapter 47

Dur­ing the spring onset, Tess faces chal­leng­ing tasks on the farm. Alec reemerges, pro­fess­ing his love and wish for con­trol, spurring Tess to rebuke him. Alec promis­es to return to claim her in the afternoon.

Chapter 48

Alec ful­fills his promise, escort­ing Tess home and offer­ing to care for her and her fam­i­ly. Despite his per­sis­tence, Tess rejects him again, lat­er pen­ning a heart­felt let­ter to Angel seek­ing his sup­port against Alec’s advances.

Chapter 49

Angel in Brazil receives Tess’s let­ter through his par­ents, prompt­ing reflec­tion on his actions. Tess receives dis­tress­ing news about her ill par­ents, prompt­ing her to return home.

Chapter 50

Upon arriv­ing home, Tess attends to her moth­er’s needs before tak­ing care of the fam­i­ly’s gar­den and fields. Unex­pect­ed­ly, Alec is spot­ted work­ing near­by and again offers his help. Despite the temp­ta­tion, Tess refus­es once more, caus­ing an angry Alec to leave. On the way back home, Tess’s sib­ling informs her about their father’s pass­ing. His death means the fam­i­ly will lose their home as John Durbey­field, the last per­son cov­ered by the lease, is no longer there. The landown­er prefers his work­ers to occu­py the house instead.

Chapter 51

Prepar­ing her fam­i­ly’s move to Kings­bere, Tess encoun­ters Alec who tells her about the ‘d’Urberville Coach’, a ghost­ly car­riage believed to bring bad luck. Alec tries to per­suade Tess to move her fam­i­ly to his gar­den house, edu­cate her sib­lings, and let her moth­er care for the poul­try. Despite the temp­ta­tion, Tess declines Alec’s offer. As he leaves, Tess acknowl­edges Angel’s unjust behav­ior towards her. She writes a let­ter to him, swear­ing to for­get him as she can­not for­give him. When Joan asks about Alec’s words, Tess keeps the details to her­self, resign­ing to inform her moth­er after set­tling in Kingsbere.

Chapter 52

As Tess and her fam­i­ly start their move, they meet Mar­i­an and Izz head­ing to anoth­er farm for work. Upon reach­ing Kings­bere, they dis­cov­er that due to a delay in Joan’s mail, their rooms have been rent­ed out. Unable to find alter­na­tive accom­mo­da­tion, they spend the night in the church­yard, specif­i­cal­ly in the d’Urberville Aisle. In the grave­yard, Tess encoun­ters Alec who arro­gant­ly boasts he can help her more than her famous ances­tors. Tess dis­miss­es him in response. Mar­i­an and Izz lend a hand by send­ing Angel a let­ter, urg­ing him to return to Tess.

Chapter 53

Angel returns home, fatigued from his over­seas ven­tures. He reads Tess’s harsh let­ter, bur­dened by the thought that she may nev­er for­give him. His moth­er, haugh­ti­ly, tells him not to wor­ry about the thoughts of a mere com­mon­er. Angel reveals Tess’s hon­or­able lin­eage to his moth­er. After a peri­od of recu­per­a­tion at home, Angel writes a let­ter to Tess, send­ing it to Mar­lott. In due time, he receives a reply from Tess’s moth­er, indi­cat­ing their relo­ca­tion from Mar­lott and Tess’s detach­ment from the fam­i­ly. Real­iz­ing the urgency, Angel has­tens his reunion with Tess upon dis­cov­er­ing she did not touch the mon­ey he left with his father. This leads him to believe Tess endured extreme pover­ty in his absence, stir­ring feel­ings of regret and com­pas­sion. Angel’s par­ents final­ly grasp the true rea­son for his estrange­ment from Tess, caus­ing them to view their daugh­ter-in-law more favor­ably. Just as Angel is about to leave, he receives a let­ter from Mar­i­an and Izz.

Chapter 54

Embark­ing on a quest to find his wife, Angel trav­els through Flint­comb-Ash farm and Mar­lott, only to dis­cov­er the death of Tess’s father. He encoun­ters John Durbey­field­’s elab­o­rate tomb­stone, set­tling the unpaid expens­es. Meet­ing Joan, he notices her unease and reluc­tance to dis­close Tess’s loca­tion. Even­tu­al­ly, she suc­cumbs to his per­sis­tence and reveals that Tess is liv­ing in Sandbourne.

Chapter 55

In Sand­bourne, Angel learns of a per­son named d’Urberville resid­ing at The Herons, a posh estab­lish­ment, yet can­not find a Mrs. Clare or Miss Durbey­field. Rush­ing to the lux­u­ri­ous lodg­ing, he won­ders how Tess can afford such opu­lence, spec­u­lat­ing she might have sold his godmother’s dia­monds. Encoun­ter­ing Tess in ele­gant attire, he pleads for her for­give­ness, express­ing his accep­tance and desire for her return. Tess, dev­as­tat­ed, declares it’s too late for them. Believ­ing Angel would not return, she yield­ed to Alec d’Urberville’s advances and is now. fol­low­ing his care. After this heart-wrench­ing rev­e­la­tion, Tess departs, leav­ing an agi­tat­ed Angel behind.

Chapter 56

Observ­ing from afar at The Herons, Mrs. Brooks over­hears Tess reproach­ing Alec for deceiv­ing her into believ­ing Angel would­n’t return. Alec responds sharply, caus­ing Mrs. Brooks to retreat swift­ly. Back in her cham­ber, she wit­ness­es Tess exit­ing the prop­er­ty and dis­ap­pear­ing into the city. Lat­er, she notices a grow­ing crim­son stain on the ceil­ing, prompt­ing fear. Mrs. Brooks, alarmed, instructs a work­er to unlock the door to the d’Urberville rooms, unveil­ing a shock­ing sight — Alec, motion­less on the bed, fatal­ly stabbed. The news of Alec­s’s demise spreads rapid­ly across town.

Chapter 57

Decid­ing to leave by train, Angel receives a telegram at his hotel. It reveals Cuth­bert’s impend­ing mar­riage to Mer­cy Chant, much to his sur­prise. Choos­ing to walk to the next sta­tion instead of wait­ing for the train, he spots Tess run­ning after him as he exits the val­ley. Upon catch­ing her, Tess con­fess­es to Alec’s mur­der. She explains she did it to pro­tect Angel, although she returned to Alec because of Angel’s aban­don­ment. Plead­ing for Angel’s for­give­ness, he pro­claims his love for her, believ­ing she is not in her right mind. Final­ly under­stand­ing the grav­i­ty of her sit­u­a­tion, Angel agrees to pro­tect her. They head towards the cen­ter of the coun­try, prepar­ing, and hid­ing until the search for Tess ends, allow­ing them to escape abroad. As night falls, they find an ancient man­sion and qui­et­ly enter through a win­dow, prepar­ing for the night.

Chapter 58

After five days, Tess and Angel rem­i­nisce about their past affec­tion­ate bond, avoid­ing dis­cussing their pre­vi­ous con­flicts. When dis­cov­ered by a woman who keeps their hid­ing place, they decide it’s time to leave. After a day’s jour­ney, they reach Stone­henge by evening, where Tess seems odd­ly at peace. Lean­ing against a stone pil­lar, she express­es feel­ings of iso­la­tion, as if they are the only two peo­ple alive. Tess requests Angel to look after her sis­ter Liza-Lu in her absence, sug­gest­ing he may even­tu­al­ly mar­ry Liza-Lu and ques­tion­ing a poten­tial reunion in the after­life. Over­whelmed, Angel leaves Tess dis­tressed until she falls asleep. The next morn­ing, Angel real­izes they are sur­round­ed, and men are clos­ing in, cul­mi­nat­ing in the real­iza­tion of Tess’s fate. He strug­gles with the men to delay Tess’s fate. Sur­pris­ing­ly, Tess remains com­posed, even relieved, embrac­ing her des­tiny with peace, feel­ing unwor­thy of Angel’s devotion.

Chapter 59

At some point, Angel and Liza-Lu observe a black flag mark­ing the end of Tess’s life fly­ing high from a tow­er near Win­ton­ces­ter. After a moment of still­ness, they inter­twine their hands and con­tin­ue their jour­ney together.