Tess of the D`Urbervilles

How could I be expected to know? I was a child when I left this house four months ago. Why didn`t you tell me there was danger? Why didn`t you warn me?`When Tess Durbeyfield is driven by family poverty to claim kinship with the wealthy D`Urbervilles and seek a portion of their family fortune, meeting her `cousin` Alec proves to be her downfall. A very different man, Angel Clare, seems to offer her love and salvation, but Tess must choose whether to reveal her past or remain silent in the hope of a peaceful future. With its sensitive depiction of the wronged Tess and powerful criticism of social convention, Tess of the D`Urbervilles is one of the most moving and poetic of Hardy`s novels.Based on the three-volume first edition that shocked readers when first published in 1891, this edition includes as appendices: Hardy`s Prefaces, the Landscapes of Tess, episodes originally censored from the Graphic periodical version and a selection of the Graphic illustrations