Includes bibliographical references and index.

Foreword by Michael Irwin -- Preface and Acknowledgements -- ONE Clearing the Foreground for Experiencing Tess -- TWO The Body-Mind of Young Tess -- THREE Toward Recovery -- FOUR Beyond Frustration to Experiential Disaster -- FIVE From Confusing Movement to Integral Restoration -- SIX Consummations -- SEVEN Experience Goes Further -- Notes -- Bibliography -- About the Author -- Index.

This book interprets Thomas Hardy's Tess of the D'Urbervilles with the openness toward experience recommended by John Dewey's Art as Experience . The characters of Tess are considered as real people with sexual bodies and complex minds. Efron identifies the "experience blockers" that the critical tradition has stumbled upon, and defends Hardy's involvement in telling his story. Efron offers a new way of evaluating literature inspired by Dewey's pragmatist aesthetics.

Description based on print version record.