When low-born, country girl Tess Durbeyfield is driven by family poverty to claim kinship with the wealthy D'Urbervilles, a series of tragedies befalls her as she comes under the influence of the manipulative Alec D'Urberville.

Set in a richly portrayed society well-stocked with eccentric nobles and gossipy villagers, this story centers around 17-year-old Molly Gibson, the only daughter of a respected country doctor. The well-ordered world of Molly's childhood is soon to be complicated by new people and unexpected situations. Most devastating is her father's decision to remarry after many years of widowhood. Molly's faltering efforts to cope gracefully with an impossible...

Naive, sensitive Gertrude meets Walter Morel, a handsome coal miner, at a dance. Married after a whirlwind romance, her joy in married life diminishes as Walter reveals himself as drunken, violent, and shiftless, spending most of his time off in the pub. Consequently, Gertrude pours all of her dreams into her sons--with Oedipal intensity. When her eldest son William falls ill and dies, she transfers her longings and disappointments on her younger...