THE storm which burst over Tess, when it was published in 1891, blew itself out after a year or two: the book remains, like a mountain peak not only in its grandeur, bleakness and durability, but in a Promethean aspect.
Its famous close, "Justice' was done, and the President of the Immortals, in Aeschylean phrase, had ended his sport with Tess," refers to the Prometheus Vinctus; and the story of Tess, like the legend of Prometheus chained on the mountain crag, embodies an heroic attempt to bring light to mankind.
Though much else went to its making, there is at its heart an impassioned plea for warmth and charity towards woman, for a more enlightened view of the sexual relationship. Hardy's sub-title, 'A Pure Woman', was an afterthought; but several times in the novel he stresses