Tess Of The D'Urbervilles - Comparing The Three Adaptations
The classic 19th-century novel by Thomas Hardy has been adapted for the screen a few times (but the early versions before 1979 are considered lost), and twice for television, and the surviving three are the subject of this post. The book was very controversial upon is original publication in 1891, because it dared to portray the Victorian society of the time as hypocritical, showed how innocence can be stolen and how those who didn't fit in were shunned and fall into hardship. However, Tess Of The D'Urbervilles was hugely successful, despite Hardy's struggle to publish his original version rather than the sanitized and somewhat implausible variation of the story that first appeared in general serial magazine form. Perhaps because of the controversy, Tess was well-received by the public, and that may have been due to Hardy's sympathetic presentation of the main character, Tess Durbeyfield, a lovely young girl from a poor family who is violated and wronged by the high...