Book #17: Tess of the d'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy

I only read a few books in April, and this book is the reason why. I started it back in March because we were reading it for our ward book club, and I was stuck about halfway through it for weeks, and I kept putting off reading other books because I wanted to finish this one, so I never ended up reading anything! (The other reason I didn't read very much was because I watched every episode of The Office from all the seasons in the last few months.) The reason why I never wanted to keep going with Tess is because of how totally depressing it is. I read a quote (maybe on the Wikipedia page for the book) that this book is "the most depressing book in the English language," and honestly, I would have to agree. Long story short: Tess gets raped, and the rest of her life is ruined from that moment after. She's a "pure woman," as the subtitle of the book says, and she truly wants to be good, but she's scorned and ruined after she's raped when she's 16. It's a terrible story, and probably all too true in far too many societies and centuries. I also hated the description of the story on the back of my book (which I am borrowing from the library): it says that she was "seduced" in a wood and that later she is "torn" between two men (the man who raped her and her eventual husband), but those are ridiculous words to use in this situation. It makes it sound like she had any choice in the matter, but the whole point of the novel is that she didn't.

So in one sense, I hated this book, because it was so freaking sad. I did enjoy reading it, but I hated the story, if that makes any sense. I'm interested to talk about it at our book club meeting tomorrow. And I really am especially glad to have read it now, after the fact--it's another one of those books I always mean to have read, and now I can finally check it off my list.