Your relationship with your favourite book is not unlike what you have with your most favourite person in the world – they drive you nuts, they have ridiculous quirks, they can quite possibly annoy the bloody crap out of you, but you still love the heck out of them, you find them hilarious and you want to spend all your time with them.
That’s me and Tess. So many times have I cursed her idiodicy for listening to her equally idiotic mother, her foolishness for getting back on that bloody cab with that unfortunately (for Tess) named Alec d’Urberville, for that stupid note under the rug. Oh the pain! The PAIN!
And even worse, I will, on a regular basis, take Tess down from the shelf and lovingly toss her into my handbag so I can devour her words while sitting on the train, and each and every time am I wrought with such heart-wrenching pain. One would think that one would stop inflicting such pain on one’s self after… I dunno… the sixth time, but that’s not what friends do… right?
You all probably just responded with a resounding ‘no’, and I’m not going to try to defend myself.
All I am going to say is that I am particularly drawn to this book, and it seems that I am not the only one. I love Tess not because it is particularly well-written, nor is it even close to being an honourable story worthy of a Pulitzer. I love this book like I love The Bold and the Beautiful.
Now, I presume, that my comparison of Tess with that excellent soapie will prompt an outcry of horror and distain, but think about it this way – both are intriguing, both are exciting and both won’t let you go until the end. And as we all know, Bold still hasn’t ended after two decades, nor have I stopped reading Tess since my first introduction at age 13.
Saying that, I must say that there is one obvious difference between the two. Hardy has a canny talent for painting a most breathtaking English landscape where the fresh green beauty of the countryside is the most beautiful place on earth, where it is a perfectly appropriate place to find ruddy maids attending May Day dances.
The green screens on Bold kinda struggle on that front.
Tags: Bold and the Beautiful, Books, d'Urberville, Tess, The Big Read, Thomas Hardy
