The story follows the main character Elizabeth Bennet as she deals with issues of manners, upbringing, morality, education, and marriage in the society of the landed gentry of early 19th-century England. Elizabeth is the second of five daughters of a country gentleman living near the fictional town of Meryton in Hertfordshire, near London.

Wuthering Heights is a wild, passionate story of the intense and almost demonic love between Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff, a foundling adopted by Catherine's father. After Mr Earnshaw's death, Heathcliff is bullied and humiliated by Catherine's brother Hindley and wrongly believing that his love for Catherine is not reciprocated, leaves Wuthering Heights, only to return years later as a wealthy and polished man. He proceeds to exact a terrible revenge for his former miseries. The action of the story is chaotic and unremittingly violent, but the accomplished handling of a complex structure, the evocative descriptions of the lonely moorland setting and the poetic grandeur of vision combine to make this unique novel a masterpiece of English literature.

La novela se ambienta en el empobrecido y rural Wessex durante la Depresión prolongada. Tess es la hija mayor de John y Joan Durbeyfield, campesinos rurales sin educar. Un día, Parson Tringham informa a John que él tiene sangre noble. Tringham ha descubierto que "Durbeyfield" es una corrupción de "d'Urberville", el apellido de una noble familia normanda que actualmente está extinguida. La noticia se le sube a John a la cabeza.Ese mismo día, Tess participa en la danza de mayo, donde conoce a Angel Clare, el hijo menor del reverendo James Clare, quien está haciendo una gira andando con sus dos hermanos. Se detiene a unirse con la danza, y baila con otras chicas. Angel nota la belleza de Tess, demasiado tarde para bailar con ella, pues él ya llega tarde a un encuentro con sus hermanos. Tess se siente despreciada.