Students' Reading Responses to Tess of the d’Urbervilles, a Novel by Thomas Hardy Yazid Basthomi 1 M. M. Amri Kukuh P. Subagyo Abstract: The study explored how students responded to Tess of the d'Urbervilles, a novel by Thomas Hardy. This study was a case study of an intact class of Prose I at the English Department, Universitas Negeri Ma- lang. The data were collected from 25 students, and were in the form of stu- dents' papers, written in English, which were of the students' personal re- sponses towards the novel. The study found that the students resorted to their religius knowledge (ideology) when responding to the characters and subject matter of the novel. Students also developed certain kinds of feeling (emotion) as their religious ideology was challenged by that offered by the novel. The study also diclosed that the students' responses fell into the cate- gories of thematic and empathetic. It follows that teachers of Literature need to make attempts to situate the students to arrive at higher level of respons- es: motivational, predictive, and critical-evaluative. Keywords: reader-response, English Literature, teacher, Tess of The d’Urbervilles. Since 4 B.C., there have been four orientations of Literature, i.e., mimetic, pragmatic, expressive, and objective (Abrams, 1981). It follows that there have also been four differing orientations of literary criticisms. However, Tarigan 1 Yazid Basthomi, M. Misbahul Amri, dan Kukuh Prayitno Subagyo adalah dosen Jurusan Sastra Inggris, Fakultas Sastra, Universitas Negeri Malang (UM). 271