Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the d’Urbervilles: Wessex in an Age of Transition

Early in his career as a writer of fiction, Hardy coined the term ‘Wessex’ to signify his geographical territory. He also established his preferred subject matter, country people in a rural landscape living “between custom and education, between work and ideas, between love of place and experience of change” (Raymond Williams), ideas which this course explores in Tess of the d’Urbervilles (1891).