The Real Tess

Our novel this month at Knit the Classics (my other home on the web!) is "Tess of the D'Urbervilles" by Thomas Hardy. In doing the research for the links for the novel I found this picture:

It is Agatha Thornycroft and apparently she was Hardy's "visual inspiration" for the character of Tess. I'm so glad to see this photo. I've never been a big fan of Hardy's - although I hope that will change with reading this novel. I have always disliked how much space he devotes to descriptions, of landscapes, people and places. Having an actual picture to think about as I read is so much more inspirational to me. I think the historian in me likes the idea that we can actually identify the sources for Tess. I found tons of pictures like this one in my research. They are all on the sidebar at KTC. When I am reading Tess I will be making liberal use of these pictures to "flesh out" Hardy's writing for me. Maybe I will get to like his style a little better this time around. :)And as one of the members mentioned - it will be nice to have this photo of Ms. Thornycroft to blot out any creeping thoughts of Nastassja Kinski...ugh! There was just something so jarring and exploitative in that movie version....I much prefer the Justine Waddell version. She is a brilliant actress! She also played Molly in Mrs. Gaskell's Wives and Daughters which was one of our previous KTC books. She was also in Mansfield Park, Anna Karenina, Great Expectations and The Woman in White. All books which I hope we will someday get around to reading at KTC. :)

*I haven't forgotten the pictures to go with my last post. Just haven't gotten around to them yet. I am working on uping the bling bling factor on this blog. I'm tired of it looking so boring!