`The greatest tragic writer among the English novelists` - Virginia Woolf With its depiction of the wronged `pure woman` Tess and its powerful criticism of Victorian hypocrisy, Tess of the D`Urbervilles is one of the most moving and poetic of Hardy`s novels. When its heroine, Tess Durbeyfield, is driven by family poverty to claim kinship with the wealthy D`Urbervilles, 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. Edited with notes by TIM DOLIN and an Introduction by MARGARET R. HIGONNET