The film without the cuts. And the book itself.
A poor haggler learns he descends from knights, and the news will cost his daughter everything.
Tess Durbeyfield
A young country woman whose goodness is repeatedly misread by the world around her.
Marlott and the Vale of Blackmoor
A sheltered green valley where Tess is still one village girl among many.
A sudden claim to nobility turns vanity into a test of belief and obedience.
Read →Sir John Durberfield
The lath-like stripling frowned. “Who be you, then, John Durbeyfield, to order me about and call me ‘boy’? You know my name as well as I know yours!”
“Do you, do you? That’s the secret—that’s the secret! Now obey my orders, and take the message I’m going to charge ’ee wi’... Well, Fred, I don’t mind telling you that the secret is that I’m one of a noble race—it has been just found out by me this present afternoon, p.m.” And as he made the announcement, Durbeyfield, declining from his sitting position, luxuriously stretched himself out upon the bank among the daisies.
The lad stood before Durbeyfield, and contemplated his length from crown to toe.
“Sir John d’Urberville—that’s who I am,” continued the prostrate man. “That is if knights were baronets—which they be. ’Tis recorded in history all about me.
John Durbeyfield celebrates his noble blood by lying down in the dirt. He has just been told by a passing parson that he descends from the ancient d'Urbervilles, and his immediate response is to sprawl among the daisies and issue orders to a boy on the road. A man who claims a knight's title cannot even hold himself upright to claim it. His grandeur exists only in his own mouth, and Hardy lets us see, before Tess ever appears, that her father's discovery will be a source of foolishness rather than fortune.
The Blighted Name
A poor haggler learns he descends from knights, and the news will cost his daughter everything.
The d’Urberville name
A great old name that promises rescue and hands Tess her ruin instead.
Alec d’Urberville
A wealthy false kinsman whose pursuit of Tess changes names, costumes, and language but not its pressure.
Tess of the d’Urbervilles
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