Tess of the d'Urbervilles is a novel by Thomas Hardy. It initially appeared in book form in 1891. Though now considered a major nineteenth-century English novel and possibly Hardy's it received mixed reviews when it first appeared, in part because it challenged the sexual morals of late Victorian England. In addressing the double standards of the time, Hardy's masterly evocation of a world which we have lost, provides one of the most compelling stories in the canon of English literature.