Tess Durbeyfield is a simple, sixteen-year-old country girl, forced to work in a nobleman?s family so that her family can make ends meet. But she is forced to leave when her modesty is invaded by Alec d?Urberville. Further tragedy strikes when Tess?s baby dies. Tess leaves home to work in a dairy, where she meets Angel Clare. They fall in love, and marry against Tess?s wishes, whose past still haunts her. When she confesses about her past to Angel, he abandons her to leave for Brazil. Tess lives a hard life, and is forced to marry Alec d?Urberville, who brainwashes Tess that Angel will never return. Angel eventually comes back to Tess, but is too late. Tess murders Alec d?Urberville for destroying her life, and is briefly reunited with Angel till she is captured and executed. As per her last wish, Angel agrees to marry her sister Liza-Lu. Michael Henchard, an unemployed hay-trusser, in a state of drunkenness sells his wife Susan and daughter Elizabeth-Jane for five guineas to a sailor during a fair at Weydon-Priors. When Henchard realises his mistake, he vows to stay away from liquor for 21 years. Eighteen years later, Susan and Elizabeth-Jane return in search of Henchard and come to know that he now lives in Casterbridge. Meanwhile, Henchard has become the Mayor of Casterbridge and Newson, the sailor to whom Henchard had auctioned off his wife has gone missing. Donald Farfrae, a young Scotsman, has been hired by Henchard as his business manager. By a twist of fate, Henchard goes bankrupt and is compelled to work as Farfrae?s employee.Henchard?s brief relationship with Lucetta?the one who had nursed him back to health?no longer remains a secret. After a few years, Elizabeth-Jane marries Donald Farfrae and when she goes looking for Henchard, she learns that he has left a will requesting no funeral. Published in 1886, Thomas Hardy?s classic is a must-have for every young reader.