Byron Cammero-Santangelo, "A Moral Dilemma: Ethics in Tess of the d'Urbervilles," m English Studies, Vol 75, No 1, January, 1994, pp. 46-61.

Caminero-Santangelo begins by noting that the world of Tess is a post-Darwinian one in which ethics have no basis in nature. He then goes on to argue that the novel's "ethical center" can be located in a "community of careful readers" who will recognize the injustice in the novel and emulate Tess in challenging it.

Peter J. Casagrande, Tess of the dUrbervilles. Unorthodox Beauty, Twayne's Masterwork Studies, 1992.

In this book-length study, Casagrande argues that Hardy, in exploring the question of why innocents suffer, finds beauty in Tess's suffering at the same time that he deplores that suffering.

Graham Handley, In Thomas Hardy, Tess of the dUrbervilles, penguin, 1991.

Handley analyzes Tess in terms of "narrative structures." He gives particular weight to the roles of the characters in...