本书是哈代最杰出的作品，也是英语文学中最伟大的作品之一。小说主人公苔丝这一形象是哈代对人类世界的最伟大贡献，她已成为世界文学长廊中最优美迷人的女性形象之一。生活贫困的苔丝因貌美而被地主少爷亚利克玷污了贞节。因此，苔丝曾一度精神不振。后来，经过时间的洗涤，苔丝重振精神开始新的人生。她遇上了年轻、英俊的克莱尔，两人情投意合。然而，就在结婚的当天，克莱尔知道了苔丝的过去……

"Hardy watches over Tess like a stricken victim. He is as tender to Tess as Tess is to the world. Tender and helpless" - Irving Howe

Into his story of a simple but beautiful country girl"s seduction by another man which causes her husband to leave her on their wedding night andthereby precipitates a course of events that ends in murder,Hardy wove a luminous tenderness and longing."I have never been able to put on paper all that she is, or was to me," he said.

In defying convention and making a milkmaid the subject of tragedy, Hardy gave rein to his feeling for landscape and rural life - its harshness, seasonal rhythms and reminders of death and resurrection - and endows them with a brooding symbolism and visionary beauty.

THE MAIDEN

MAIDEN NO MORE

THE RALLY

THE CONSEQUENCE

THE WOMAN PAYS

THE CONVERL

FULFILMENT