[hardy-l] Passage in Tess

[Goldie Morgentaler]

Many thanks to Keith Wilson for directing me to the relevant passage 
in the Penguin edition of Tess. It is a great help. But if this is 
what Hardy wrote, namely that Tess felt that she had merely 
"succumbed" to Alec, then the supposed ambiguity of her surrender 
seems to me not to be so ambiguous in this version of the novel. I 
cannot find a hint here that her sexual relations with Alec were 
something that she desired on any level. Hardy obviously decided to 
complicate the matter in later rewriting.

Goldie

-- 
Goldie Morgentaler
Professor, Dept. of English
University of Lethbridge
4401 University Drive
Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada T1K 3M4
goldie.morgentaler at uleth.ca
(403) 329-2365