Tess of the d'Urbervilles (poss spoiler)

[sasamax]

So how devastated are all the 'costume drama viewers' going to be when they realise that this ain't no Jane Austen???? LOL

surely everyone knows its depressing? which is the precise reason i have never read it.

Supposedly Jude the Obscure is the worst which is why I haven't read that one

Reminds me of Eddie Izzard's comment on the Graham Norton show about all those who went to see Titanic and were surprised by the ending: 'What? The ship sinks? '

LOL - Somehow I think this will be the last Hardy TV adaption...

to titanic comment

jude the obscure is appallingly depressing in a fascinatingly awful kind of way. you know you shouldn't keep reading cos it's only going to get worse, but you just can't help yourself

yep, certainly think from comments on here that a few people are in for a shock

Anyone read 'A pair of blue eyes?'
A gentler more basic version of Tess but v good!

What makes you think that sasamax? I'm surprised that no one has commented on the 1998 version of Tess with Justine Waddell in it. I remember it quite vividly watching it in my halls of residence in my first year at uni.

Also saw Jude with Christopher Eccleston and Kate Winslet in it a few years later when it was on TV and thinking I'll never read that particular book.

My mum has no idea bless her and said today she has started to like Alex D!
"ok Mum he raped the girl"
"oh yes I forgot"

I then told her "it doesnt end well"

That this will be the last one?
I just think that the costume drama fans like their happy endings. IME the people who prefer the grittier stuff tend to be readers first and viewers second. Tess is so rich in metaphor and irony that can't ever be expressed on the screen. OK so the viewers can see, for example, the effects of the industrial revolution on the events that befall Tess, but can they really understand the prejudice which clouds Angel's judgement, or even understand why he is also a victim of the changing times?
I don't want to ramble on about it but I just feel it doesn't televise too well. Not enough dialogue in the book either - they are inventing dialogue to make it work on TV - therefore bastardising the book itself. That can't be good!
I will shut up now - it's the wine talking

And I didn't know there was an earlier adaption - excuse my ignorance!!

There was a film version starring Natassia Kinski directed by Roman Polanski as well as the Justine Waddell version. Worth giving the film a go - if you need more misery in your life, of course...

I saw the Polanski (paedophile) version and really liked it! She is a brilliant Tess - is she german or something? He didn't put in any made-up dialogue and spent loads of time setting scenes and things - quite Hardy-esque for a director. (but he's still a paedophile...)

Well, never mind the reason he fled America in the first place, Polanski was having a relationship with Kinski when she was fifteen...

and they all gave him a standing ovation at the oscars a couple of years ago - except, notably, Jack Nicholson...

They will be a mordern take on it next - alla Lost in Austin - Mardy in Hardy or some such