Tess of the d’Urbervilles and Database Normalisation

Reducing Redundancy in a Cruel and Unforgiving Schema

Thomas Hardy · 13 June 2026

“The database was pure, but the data model had other opinions.”

A tragic introduction to database normalisation, referential integrity, and the devastating consequences of allowing historical errors to propagate unchecked through successive generations of schema design.

Contents

1. Chapter 1: The First Normal Form of Innocence
2. Chapter 2: Angel Clare Denormalises for Performance
3. Chapter 3: Referential Integrity at Flintcomb-Ash
4. Chapter 4: A Cruel Constraint Is Enforced

Published by Austenpunk, the distinguished imprint for engineers who believe that every production incident would be improved by a stronger sense of narrative irony.

This essential volume combines literary feeling, technical anxiety, and just enough documentation to suggest that somebody once understood the system.