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Synopsis Tess of The d'Urbervilles is one of Hardy's Wessex novels, so called because the action in each story takes place in the Wessex region. Other of the Wessex novels include The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886) and Jude the Obscure (1895). In each, the main characters are dealt a cruel fate that they must overcome or be crushed by.  In The Mayor of Casterbride, Michael Henchard, a respected man, faces a spiritual and physical deterioration that, in the end, destroy him. The main character in Jude, Jude Fawley, suffers from a desperate misery of body and mind and dies, like Tess in Tess of The d'Urbervilles, a victim of fate. The book carries the scholarly criticism of the Hardy's Landmark Novel that casts light on moral dualities and pretensions prevalent in Victorian society. A separate section is devoted to the literary life of Hardy, his subjects and prose style, which is interesting and useful to know for the students of literature.