Hardy, Thomas

Michael Henchard, an unemployed farmhand, gets drunk and sells his wife and baby daughter, but his past come back to haunt him years later when he becomes of Mayor of Casterbridge.

A young woman finds herself the victim of fate and of forces beyond her control in nineteenth-century England.

Tess Durbeyfield attempts to restore her family's fortunes by claiming their connection with the the aristocratic d'Urbervilles. After Alec d'Urberville seduces her and makes her life miserable, she meets and falls in love with Angel Clare.