<P> The novel is set in impoverished rural England , Thomas Hardy 's fictional Wessex , during the Long Depression of the 1870s . Tess is the oldest child of John and Joan Durbeyfield , uneducated peasants . However , John is given the impression by Parson Tringham that he may have noble blood , as `` Durbeyfield '' is a corruption of `` D'Urberville '' , the surname of an extinct noble Norman family . Knowledge of this immediately goes to John 's head . </P>
<P> The novel is set in impoverished rural England , Thomas Hardy 's fictional Wessex , during the Long Depression of the 1870s . Tess is the oldest child of John and Joan Durbeyfield , uneducated peasants . However , John is given the impression by Parson Tringham that he may have noble blood , as `` Durbeyfield '' is a corruption of `` D'Urberville '' , the surname of an extinct noble Norman family . Knowledge of this immediately goes to John 's head . </P>
when does tess of the d'urbervilles take place
when does tess of the d'urbervilles take place
during the Long Depression of the 1870s
during the Long Depression of the 1870s