Tess of the D'Urbervilles

<b>The novel is set in impoverished rural Wessex during the Long Depression.<b> Tess is the oldest child of John and Joan Durbeyfield, uneducated rural peasants. One day, Parson Tringham informs John that he has noble blood.

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Tringham, an amateur genealogist, has discovered that "Durbeyfield" is a corruption of "D'Urberville", the surname of a noble Norman family