As moving a book as can be. After digesting the plot, and how Hardy's incredible blending of the scene's to the plot, one can still think long about what the story meant in 1891 and what it means now. The last chapter was incredibly well crafted. With the whole novel focused on Tess and detailing her actions coping with her hardships and betrayals, she's finally executed. But her demise is less by death than erasure. Days before her death the world around her indifferently moved on. The only public mark Tess left on the her world was a momentarily raised black pennant that waved freely in the breeze as if even it took no notice of Tess's life.