I quite enjoyed this although it was a dreary story. I assume it was a moral tale warning of the dangers of believing yourself to be better than you are. One wonders who to blame really - it all started off with the Pastor putting delusions of grandeur into a drunken fool's mind. The parents then send Tess off to sponge basically off people she believed to be related to her. Unfortunately for her the black sheep of the family set his sights on her and before you knew it Sorrow arrived in the shape of a sick baby who soon died. There is a little moral lesson here when the church will not christen or accept the baby for a Christian burial in hallowed ground. Tess travels about and ends up being a milkmaid for a farmer whose son Angel soon falls in love with her. The good news is greeted with a kiss on the lips for Tess by another milkmaid. Really !! Is that the only way the writers could sneak in a same sex scene? How pathetic. After refusing him for a long time Tess finally agrees to marry him - there really isn't any excuse why she didn't tell him of the rape or the baby - I wasn't convinced by her rather futile efforts. She was a child of her time - she would have known what his reaction would be - but hey ho - there wouldn't have been a story if she had. I wont reveal the ending - but she was wise enough to leave her family well provided for - her reasons for which I view with more than a little cynicism.