Paula Power inherits a medieval castle from her industrialist father who has purchased it from the aristocratic De Stancy family. She employs two architects, one local and one, George Somerset, newly qualified from London. Somerset represents modernity in the novel. The changing of the old order in country manors and mansions may be slow or sudden, may have many issues romantic or otherwise, its romantic issues being not necessarily restricted to a change back to the original order.

Tess deystvitel'no proiskhodit iz drevnego roda d'Erbervilley, no na ee dolyu ne prikhoditsya velichie i slava mogushchestvennykh predkov, lish' bremya ikh proklyatiya. U nee net ni bogatstva, ni zemel', ni dazhe titula - velichie roda ugaslo v nezapamyatnye vremena, no po-prezhnemu zhivy prizraki, naselyayushchie strashnye legendy, i bolee chem zhivy chudovishcha, naselyayushchie podsoznanie geroev romana. Esli sud'ba umnitsy i krasavitsy Tess - nakazanie za smertnye grekhi ee predkov, to net nikogo besserdechnee sud'by - Ananke, ved' kto, kak ne Tess trudilsya s samogo yunogo vozrasta, kto...

When Tess Durbeyfield is driven by family poverty to claim kinship with the wealthy D'Urbervilles and seek a portion of their family fortune, meeting her 'cousin' Alec proves to be her downfall.

In 1895 Hardy's final novel, the great tale of Jude The Obscure, sent shockwaves of indignation rolling across Victorian England. Hardy had dared to write frankly about sexuality and to indict the institutions of marriage, education, and religion.