Although now considered a major novel of the 19th century, Tess of the d'Urbervilles received mixed reviews when it first appeared, in part because it challenged the sexual morals of late Victorian England.

Tess drives to market in her father's place, but falls asleep at the reins; the wagon crashes and the family's only horse is killed.

Angel's father, James Clare, a clergyman, is surprised that his son wishes to marry a milkmaid but makes no objection, understanding Tess to be a pure and devout country maiden.

After a long search, Angel finds Tess elegantly dressed and living in a boarding house in the fashionable seaside resort of Sandbourne, under the name of "Mrs d'Urberville".

Sitting in her parlour beneath the d'Urbervilles' rented rooms, the landlady notices a spreading red spot – a bloodstain – on the ceiling.

The couple find an empty house and stay there for five days in blissful, loving seclusion before being forced to move to evade capture.

[3] On the other hand, the Marxist critic Raymond Williams in The English Novel from Dickens to Lawrence questions the identification of Tess with a peasantry destroyed by industrialization.

Williams sees Tess not as a peasant, but as an educated member of the rural working class, who suffers a tragedy through being thwarted in her hopes to rise socially and desire for a good life (which includes love and sex), not by industrialism, but by the landed bourgeoisie (Alec), liberal idealism (Angel) and Christian moralism in her family's village (see Chapter LI).

[6] However, Tess emerges as a powerful character not through this symbolism but because "Hardy's feelings for her were strong, perhaps stronger than for any of his other invented personages.

[8][9] The moral commentary running through the novel insists that Tess is not at fault in imposing mythological, biblical and folk imagery on a story of a young girl seduced and abandoned to create a "challenging contemporaneity".

During the era of first-wave feminism, civil divorce was introduced and campaigns were waged against child prostitution, moving gender and sexuality issues to the forefront of public discussion.

[10][11] Hardy's description leaves it unclear whether Alec d’Urberville rapes Tess or whether he seduces her, and the issue has been the subject of debate.

[2][12] Mary Jacobus, a commentator on Hardy's works, speculates that the rape/seduction ambiguity may have been forced on the author to meet publisher requirements and the "Grundyist" readership of his time.

[15] Mrs Lewis Waller (Florence West) played the title role, with William Kettridge as Angel Clare and Whitworth Jones as Alec Tantridge.

[16] The play transferred to the Comedy Theatre for 17 performances from 14 April 1900 with a slightly different cast, including Fred Terry as Alec and Oswald Yorke as Angel.

[18] The novel was successfully adapted for the stage several more times: 1906: An Italian operatic version written by Frederic d'Erlanger was first performed in Naples, but the run was cut short by an eruption of Mount Vesuvius.