'Irreconcilables,' 'Reclaimables,' and 'First Falls': Lady Mary Jeune and the Fallen Woman inTess of the d'Urbervilles

Abstract

Abstract This article examines the intersection of Lady Mary Jeune's (1845–1931) half dozen periodical essays on the fallen woman published in the 1880s and 1890s, her accompanying philanthropic work, and Hardy's construction of the fallen woman in Tess of the d'Urbervilles. Hardy read and commented on Jeune's essays, which appeared in the Fortnightly Review and the National Observer, as he was writing Tess, but he did not share Jeune's optimistic view that society would welcome the 'first fall' and participate in her reclamation. The present essay explores the differences between philanthropic and novelistic advocacy and Hardy's apparent decision to write the story of Tess largely from outside the context of the Victorian fallen woman as she was being constructed in the periodical press. Instead, Hardy's version is written from within the 'dream-world of books,' and that world is bleaker than Jeune's world of 'amelioration and succour.'