Coming to PBS in January 2009a a MasterpieceTM Classic production of Thomas Hardyas "Tess of the DaUrbervillesTess Durbeyfield knows what it is to work hard and expect little. But her life is about to veer from the path trod by her mother and grandmother. When her neaer-do-well father learns that his family is the last of a long noble line, the daUrbervilles, he sends Tess on a journey to meet her supposed kina a journey that will see her victimized by lust, poverty, and hypocrisy. With its sensitive depiction of one of literatureas most admirable and tragic heroines and its powerful criticism of social convention, "Tess of the DaUrbervilles" is one of the most moving and poetic of Thomas Hardyas novels.