Tess Durbeyfield is an honest, hardworking woman fighting for a better life, who puts her family first. However, her calculation is pulled through at a very young age by the haughty Alec d'Urberville, when he rapes her one night. How does a girl cope with shame and then grief in the mid-1800s? If she leaves the scene of her painful past behind, can she start a new life by the side of a loving, caring man?

A Chaste Woman is a timeless classic by Thomas Hardy; its key questions revolve around the duality of sin and guilt, the power of secrets that ensnare life, the power of love, desire and acceptance that transcends morality.

The aim of Athenaeum Kiadó's Emotional Classics series, launched in 2021, is to - by addressing the readers of the twenty-first century with works from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries - create a dialogue spanning the ages along questions that humanity has pondered since the beginning of time.