'The Thomas Hardy Collection' DVD

This August, A&E Home Entertainment serves up a newly-packaged set, sure to thrill fans of sweeping literary adaptations and anglophiles alike with THE THOMAS HARDY COLLECTION. In the spirit of A&E’s acclaimed literary adaptations, like Pride & Prejudice and Emma, which have sold over 2.5 million units comes this 2 disc collection featuring two of the beloved author’s most enduring works: TESS OF THE D’URBERVILLES and THE MAYOR OF CASTERBRIDGE. Featuring gorgeous on-location filming and renowned international casts, including Ciaran Hinds (Road to Perdition, Rome), James Purefoy (Rome) and Justine Waddell (Mansfield Park), both of these epic adaptations offer sweeping romance and drama on a grand scale.

TESS OF THE D’URBERVILLES
Her luminous beauty blazing against the bleak background of rural Victorian England, Tess Durbeyfield (Justine Waddell, “Great Expectations”) is one of literature's best-loved and most memorable heroines. Violated by one man and forsaken by another, she refuses to remain a victim. But her struggle to endure despite the abandonment of her true love-- and her desperate attempt to attain happiness-- propel Tess toward a tragic end.

THE MAYOR OF CASTERBRIDGE
Destitute and drunken, Michael Henchard is an itinerant farmhand who sells his wife and daughter to a sailor in a moment of alcohol-fueled desperation. So begins THE MAYOR OF CASTERBRIDGE, Thomas Hardy's enduring classic with Ciaran Hinds (Jane Eyre) as the tragic, tormented Henchard. Decades after his fateful decision, now reformed and respectable, he is offered a chance at redemption when his wife re-appears with her daughter. But the reunion's promise is soon tarnished by a web of jealousy, deceit and wounded pride.