Original artwork, not a still
Tess of the d'Urbervilles • 1891
A little one-eyed blinking sort of place.
Behind the line
What it means
Our interpretation.
A throwaway piece of rustic dialect, but it does Hardy's work early: the family's grand ancestral seat is a sleepy village with hardly a light in it, and the vanity that will ruin Tess's family is punctured in one phrase. Readers cherish it as a perfect, vivid description of any small town where nothing much shows.
Context reviewed
In context
Spoilers for Tess of the d'UrbervillesShow the scene
The line is spoken in Chapter I of Tess of the d'Urbervilles, the novel's opening scene on a country road in the Vale of Blackmoor. Jack Durbeyfield, a poor haulier, has just been told by a parson that he descends from the ancient d'Urberville family, and he orders a passing lad to carry his basket and fetch a carriage. When he mentions that his ancestors lie under the church at Kingsbere-sub-Greenhill, the lad objects that it is no city. He knows it from the fair at Greenhill, and calls it a little one-eyed, blinking sort of place. Durbeyfield brushes the point aside.
Sources (1)
- Tess of the d'Urbervilles (Project Gutenberg #110)Phase the First, Chapter IReference checked
Context reviewed
