Tess of the d'Urbervilles

• Wuthering Heights (Penguin Classics)
• Middlemarch
• Great Expectations (Penguin Classics)
• "Tess of the D'Urbervilles" (York Notes Advanced)
• A Tale of Two Cities

But Bron's sensitive reading of this tragedy is a revelation which had me totally enveloped. Tess comes across as a pitiful, humbly righteous creature whose destiny seems inevitably gloomy almost from the first minute. The male parts (mainly D'Urbeville and Angel Clare) are equally well read and clearly differentiated.

Tess's silent suffering is the antithesis of today's modern, assertive woman, but is no less noble.

This reading lasts six full CDs, but I wished it were even longer. (I have previously bought a two-CD version, but that necessarily eliminates much of the subtlety of the book.)

If you're studying this novel for an exam, this is the ideal version to get well acquainted with the story.

Hardys best, 2007-11-01
Hardy evockes such a powerful impression of women as strong independent people which at the time must have seemed brave for such a highbrow author. It seems a very modern novel in this respect and draws together all of his usual themes of class, tragedy, fate and love. His writing is at time's incredibly moving and powerful that you often need to take time away just to digest it's beauty and humanity. It is the perfect novel for me and one i now regard as my favourite ever. It always seems a shame that so few young people like myself read such a brilliant authors work .