Tess of the d’Urbervilles: A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented is a novel by Thomas Hardy.It initially appeared in a censored and serialised version, published by the British illustrated newspaper The Graphic in 1891 and in book form in 1892.Though now considered a major nineteenth-century English novel and possibly Hardy’s masterpiece, Tess of the d’Urbervilles received mixed reviews when it first appeared, in part because it challenged the sexual morals of late Victorian England.