The Return of the Native

Oct 10, 2012 Jeffrey Keeten rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

”I read a lot of classical books like The Return of the Native and all, and I like them,” says Holden Caulfield in The Catcher in the Rye. “I like that Eustacia Vye.”

Catherine Zeta Jones as Eustacia Vye

Eustacia Vye is a young maid filled with longing for the city of Paris, for new experiences,fresh sights, sounds that have never rang her ears before, and a lover to fill her heart with dewy-eyed passion. She lives on the moors of Wessex in the midst of a small collection of dwellings called Egdo...more

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Oct 07, 2011 Kim rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobook, all-time-favourites

I have spent the last thirty five years convinced that I do not like Thomas Hardy. I know how it happened. Reading Tess of the D'Urbervilles when I was in high school and again at university made a lasting - and a negative - impression on me. Admittedly, I went on to read Jude the Obscure and Far from the Madding Crowd, also while I was at university, and quite liked both novels. Notwithstanding this, my dislike of Tess overshadowed whatever appreciation for Hardy's work I might otherwise have d...more
I have spent the last thirty five years convinced that I do not like Thomas Hardy. I know how it happened. Reading Tess of the D'Urbervilles when I was in high school and again at university made a lasting - and a negative - impression on me. Admittedly, I went on to read Jude the Obscure and Far from the Madding Crowd, also while I was at university, and quite liked both novels. Notwithstanding this, my dislike of Tess overshadowed whatever appreciation for Hardy's work I might otherwise have developed. The result is that I have not read another of Hardy's novels since leaving university.

Until now. Through one of my Goodreads friends (Thanks Robin!) I discovered that Alan Rickman had narrated The Return of the Native and I decided that if listening to an audiobook narrated by Rickman could not make me like Hardy, then nothing could. After all, I would pay good money to hear Alan Rickman read the telephone directory or the bus timetable, so why not listen to him read Hardy?

What an excellent decision that was, for this was a sublime experience.

First, there's the novel itself. This is Greek or Shakespearean tragedy in the form of a novel. The setting, Egdon Heath, is a character in itself, brought alive by its flora, its fauna, the time of day, the season, the weather conditions and - most of all - those who live there. Then there are the main characters whose lives and dramas are played out on and around the heath: all of them amazingly alive with their passions and their flaws. And there are the secondary characters: those who live in the cottages on the heath who act as both comic relief and Greek chorus. There's the tragedy itself, which is brought about not by evil, but - as tragedy so often is - by misunderstandings and bad timing. The tragedy is lightened somewhat by the conclusion of the novel, which is a happy ending for at least some of the characters. This was not the ending that Hardy initially intended and was apparently a result of the demands of serial publication and the expectations of readers. I think the novel suffers somewhat as a result, but only a little.

Secondly, there's the language of the novel. Hardy eventually gave up writing novels to write poetry and it's clear that the poet was always there in the novelist. The language is rich, complex, with breathtakingly beautiful imagery. Many scenes are so vividly described that I could see them as oil paintings, knowing exactly how the light and shadow would fall on them.

Thirdly, there's Alan Rickman's narration. It is, quite simply, a joy to listen to. Rickman narrates; he does not deliver a bravura acting performance, so his reading is restrained. However, he nevertheless creates distinctive and appropriate voices for the characters, including wonderful West Country accents for the supporting characters. His voice is mesmerising: low, rich and warm. I could listen to it forever.

All in all, as an experiment to see if I could really enjoy a novel by Thomas Hardy, listening to this audiobook has been spectacularly successful. If I had read a text version, I probably would have given it a four star rating, maybe even 3 1/2 stars because of the less than totally satisfactory ending. Listening to Alan Rickman read the book to me has elevated the experience from great to amazing. My only problem is that I may have difficulty finding another audiobook that I will enjoy as much.

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Sep 02, 2009 Paul marked it as to-read-novels

From one of Monty Python's albums:

Commentator: Hello, and welcome to Dorchester, where a very good crowd has turned out to watch local boy Thomas Hardy write his new novel "The Return Of The Native", on this very pleasant July morning. This will be his eleventh novel and the fifth of the very popular Wessex novels, and here he comes! Here comes Hardy, walking out towards his desk. He looks confident, he looks relaxed, very much the man in form, as he acknowledges this very good natured bank holi...more From one of Monty Python's albums:

Commentator: Hello, and welcome to Dorchester, where a very good crowd has turned out to watch local boy Thomas Hardy write his new novel "The Return Of The Native", on this very pleasant July morning. This will be his eleventh novel and the fifth of the very popular Wessex novels, and here he comes! Here comes Hardy, walking out towards his desk. He looks confident, he looks relaxed, very much the man in form, as he acknowledges this very good natured bank holiday crowd. And the crowd goes quiet now, as Hardy settles himself down at the desk, body straight, shoulders relaxed, pen held lightly but firmly in the right hand. He dips the pen...in the ink, and he's off! It's the first word, but it's not a word - oh, no! - it's a doodle. Way up on the top of the lefthand margin is a piece of meaningless scribble - and he's signed his name underneath it! Oh dear, what a disappointing start. But he's off again - and here he goes - the first word of Thomas Hardy's new novel, at ten thirtyfive on this very lovely morning, it's three letters, it's the definite article, and it's "The". Dennis?

Dennis: Well, this is true to form, no surprises there. He started five of his eleven novels to date with the definite article. We had two of them with "It", there's been one "But", two "At"s, one "On" and a "Dolores", but that of course was never published.

Commentator: I'm sorry to interrupt you there, Dennis, but he's crossed it out. Thomas Hardy, here on the first day of his new novel, has crossed out the only word he has written so far, and he's gazing off into space. Oh, ohh, there he signed his name again.

Dennis: It looks like "Tess of the D'Urbervilles" all over again.

Commentator: But he's...no, he's down again and writing, Dennis, he's written "B" again, he's crossed it out again, and he has written "A" - and there is a second word coming up straight away, and it's "Sat" - "A Sat" - doesn't make sense - "A Satur" - "A Saturday" - it's "A Saturday", and the crowd are loving it, they are really enjoying this novel. And it's "afternoon", it's "Saturday afternoon", a comfortable beginning, and he's straight on to the next word - it's "in" - "A Saturday afternoon in" - "in" - "in" "in Nov" - "November" - November is spelled wrong, he's left out the second "E", but he's not going back, it looks like he's going for the sentence, and it's the first verb coming up - it's the first verb of the novel, and it's "was", and the crowd are going wild! "A Saturday afternoon in November was", and a long word here - "appro" - "appro" - is it a "approving"? - no, it's "approaching" - "approaching" - "A Saturday afternoon in November was approaching" - and he's done the definite article "but" again. And he's writing fluently, easily with flowing strokes of the pen, as he comes up to the middle of this first sentence. And with this eleventh novel well underway, and the prospects of a good days writing ahead, back to the studio.
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Jan 20, 2009 julieta rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: siglo-xix, brits

I have to confess that I started reading Thomas Hardy because I found one of his books (Jude the Obscure) in a used bookstore in Mexico city, sold very cheaply. I am not one to let a cheap book pass, especially if it has a nice old look to it, so I went for it. I am happy I did. Since then I have always enjoyed his tragedies. Because, they are, tragedies.
But for some reason I find that if he can make such tragedies out of so few elements, and put them together in such a gripping way, well, he’s...more I have to confess that I started reading Thomas Hardy because I found one of his books (Jude the Obscure) in a used bookstore in Mexico city, sold very cheaply. I am not one to let a cheap book pass, especially if it has a nice old look to it, so I went for it. I am happy I did. Since then I have always enjoyed his tragedies. Because, they are, tragedies.
But for some reason I find that if he can make such tragedies out of so few elements, and put them together in such a gripping way, well, he’s got me.

But in the case of Return of the Native, it seems like a lukewarm tragedy, which seems like none at all. The most tragic figure, Eustacia, happens to be my favorite character in the book. She seems made for it. She is written a-la-Bovary, an ambitious woman who hates her sorroundings, cannot stand the people around her, and longs for a more exciting life somewhere far away from that place where she lives with her grandfather. When she meets Clym (who has been living in paris, and who happens to be the native returned), she sees in him maybe someone who will take her to a better life. But I like the fact that, she is passionate, and actually sincere about the fact that she wants out of that little town, and away from the people in it. And she admits that maybe falling in love with Clym had something to do with the idea that he would take her away with him. She is no friendly person, and a lot of people see her as a witch, which to my eyes makes her more likable. That a mistake made by her brings on all the terrible things that will come in the story, well, just makes her the central figure in the story too.

Clym has an opposite view. He loves everything that Eustacia hates about the Heath. He has come back, tired of being a diamond seller in paris, and wanting to do something better for his fellow Egdoners. And there is mother of course, who does not approve of Eustacia, as is to be expected, and hopes for something better for her son.
And mediocre Thomasin Clyms cousin, Damon, who is on love with Eustacia but marries her, but stays in love with Eustacia. There is Diggory Venn, what a name! Who is always on the side, also a hermit and a very strange man, too bad he gets the happy ending. (I wonder what hardy meant to do with the end?)

But the strongest character I think is Egdon Heath. Those dark fields, that lonely and beautiful place is just oppressing and seems like a huge trap for anyone there. All the dramas that people may live through are looked at by this big piece of land that just watches on .Me being a city girl, I just like the fact that such a place can exist and have such a strong effect on the people who live in it.

The book starts out very slowly, too much so, because Hardy likes to revel in the place before telling of the people in it, as he does in all his books, always setting the picture, of nature, of quietness and loneliness. This can scare off a few, but if you keep going you find it worth it.

It’s actually pretty depressing, the whole thing, the place, the hopelessness, but when there’s a good story in it, you can’t help getting into it, and I happen to love all that ceremony which we will never see (thankfully), and all that complication of being part of a (usually small) society. And I like the language we certainly will never use, even if I need my dictionary close by, it’s worth it.

This is not the best Hardy book for me, I think Jude The Obscure, or even Tess d’Urbevilles, are a much better place to start reading him, if you like that sort of thing. Which I do.

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Apr 01, 2011 James rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites, fiction, study-group, lincoln-park-group

I have enjoyed reading and rereading this novel since I was in my teens. In thinking about this I can only suggest that from the first reading I was impressed with Hardy's ability to create a complete believable setting where the characters interacted not just with one another but with the world in which they lived. That world was a rural Victorian one, but it resonated with my own somewhat rural experience even though it occurred more than one hundred years earlier.
What Thomas Hardy created wa...more I have enjoyed reading and rereading this novel since I was in my teens. In thinking about this I can only suggest that from the first reading I was impressed with Hardy's ability to create a complete believable setting where the characters interacted not just with one another but with the world in which they lived. That world was a rural Victorian one, but it resonated with my own somewhat rural experience even though it occurred more than one hundred years earlier.
What Thomas Hardy created was a tale of passion and tragedy on Egdon Heath located in his fictional Wessex. Egdon Heath itself is the first "character" introduced into the book. The heath proves physically and psychologically important throughout the novel: characters are defined by their relation to the heath. Among them is Eustacia Vye whose desire to lead a life elsewhere is dashed when she marries Clym Yeobright (the Native) upon his return from Paris. The pair represents the archetype of two people caught up in their passion for each other and conflicting ambitions. For Clym, the heath is beautiful; for Eustacia, it is hateful. The plot of the novel emphasizes just this kind of difference in perception. What impresses me upon rereading this is the intricate plotting of Eustacia who throughout the novel is weaving a web of deceit with the aim of enhancing her own life. Her hubris knows few bounds and is exacerbated by her lack of understanding of those in whose lives she has intervened. She raves, "How have I tried and tried to be a splendid woman, and how destiny has been against me! I do not deserve my lot! O, the cruelty of putting me into this ill-conceived world! I was capable of much; but I have been injured and blighted and crushed by things beyond my control! O, how hard it is of Heaven to devise such tortures for me, who have done no harm to Heaven at all!"(Book 5, Chapter 7) This lack of understanding is an example of the importance of misconception in the novel which is not limited to the character of Eustacia. Ambiguity builds as the novel progresses and the main characters remain obscure for the reader. When The Return of the Native was first published, contemporary critics criticized the novel for its lack of sympathetic characters. All of the novel's characters prove themselves deeply flawed, or--at the very least--of ambiguous motivation. What I found redeeming about the novel was the way Hardy brings the lives of this couple and their friends and families alive through detail that reinforces his penetrating portrayal of the community on the heath.
The final section provides some hope for the future, tempering the otherwise bleak landscape of the novel. This was Thomas Hardy's first great novel and he would follow it with bleaker tales this is the one that I return to when reminiscing of the joy of reading Thomas Hardy's novels.(less)

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Aug 11, 2011 ☽ Moon ☯ 佛月球 Будда Луны rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

δ∝δ∝δ∝δ∝δ∝• EPICUREAN LOVE •∝δ∝δ∝δ∝δ∝δ

Born out of the intensest human desires are unbridled sensual passions that begrudgingly awaits physical gratification from the world without. A human dilemma that can cripple the soul to somnolence as sensuality overpowers spirituality from its true course. It ransacks the mind out of reason as the senses chase its pursuits of epicurean yearnings, surrendering body and soul to the ambition of bucolic longings.

The farther the distance to the object of desire...more

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Sep 08, 2007 Sundry rated it 5 of 5 stars

Good medicine. I hated this book when I had to read it in high school. Maybe because I’d assumed from the title that it was going to be about American Indians. (In my defense, I’d been forced to read The Last of the Mohicans the previous year, and may have thought high school literature was all about the aboriginals.) Maybe because the entire first chapter is a description of Egdon Heath; one that still elicited a groan from me when I started listening to the audiobook a few weeks ago.

This is th...more Good medicine. I hated this book when I had to read it in high school. Maybe because I’d assumed from the title that it was going to be about American Indians. (In my defense, I’d been forced to read The Last of the Mohicans the previous year, and may have thought high school literature was all about the aboriginals.) Maybe because the entire first chapter is a description of Egdon Heath; one that still elicited a groan from me when I started listening to the audiobook a few weeks ago.

This is the first book in an experiment my friend Toronto and I are conducting, which consists of buddying up to read books that one or the other of us hated when we were assigned to read them in high school or college. Our goal is to discover whether further experience in life and literature will change our minds about the texts.

Well. All I can say is, I am now utterly fascinated with Thomas Hardy.

The book offers many clever turns of phrase and arresting insights, but what really got me excited at this point in my life (read that: writing life) is the structure. I found myself caught up in my conflicting hopes for the characters, all of which hang on Eustacia’s actions. I had a very clear idea of the pros and cons of her choice between Clym and Wildeve, and I couldn’t decide which would be the best. Compromises and rewards, either way. Then Hardy takes us in a direction I wasn’t considering and the outcome is satisfying because it had been set up in advance while I was focused on the more obvious possibilities.

So very like life.

I haven’t read Hardy’s more famous books Far From the Madding Crowd or Tess of the D’Urbervilles. I may need to soon. I’m also interested in his autobiography. I mean, the guy was born in 1840, wrote books that were very forward thinking and risky at the same time that Dickens and Georg Eliot were being published, and died in 1928. He seems such a part of another time and way of thinking, yet he was alive and kicking in the 20th century. I guess all of our lifespans are kind of phenomenal.
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Jan 22, 2013 Elaine rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: school

I am currently finishing an essay on this novel, and as such, writing a review is the last thing I want to do. My poor, poor fingers...

In short: Victorian soap opera with unexpectedly gorgeous language. Wish I could have spent more time with the text just to enjoy it - some incredible imagery, symbolism, allusion, etc, though ponderous at times. I find myself wondering whether it has a point beyond slightly rebellious social commentary, and for once (for me, ha) the language just really isn't e...more

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May 13, 2013 Heather rated it 3 of 5 stars

This book really deserves 3.5 stars, because there is a lot of clever writing, lots of phrases that I underlined and read outloud to my husband. Thomas Hardy, he knows how to turn a phrase.

It's not 4 stars, though, because my heck the first 70 pages are a slog. It's a love song to the heath, which I supposed was a kind of moor, although I googled it to be sure. (There was actually quite a lot of googling I had to do, to understand what a "reddleman" is, and what a "furze-cutter" is, as both of t...more This book really deserves 3.5 stars, because there is a lot of clever writing, lots of phrases that I underlined and read outloud to my husband. Thomas Hardy, he knows how to turn a phrase.

It's not 4 stars, though, because my heck the first 70 pages are a slog. It's a love song to the heath, which I supposed was a kind of moor, although I googled it to be sure. (There was actually quite a lot of googling I had to do, to understand what a "reddleman" is, and what a "furze-cutter" is, as both of these occupations play fairly significant roles in the book.) It reminded me of the chapter in Hunchback of Notre Dame that is entirely devoted to describing the streets of Paris. We get it, Victor, Paris is cool. And we get it Thomas, you love the heath. Enough already.

But then Eustacia Vye shows up, and things start to get rolling. And if there was ever a more unlikable literary character ever invented, I haven't come across her yet. This is a woman you really want to slap. Hard. Hardy plays with her dialogue and character in such a way, though, as to make you really enjoy wanting to slap her. She has no redeeming qualities whatsoever, which makes the reader wonder how on earth one man could fall in love with her, let alone two. I'd like to say that her tragic story moved me, but really, her character arc ended in a fully satisfying way. Sad, but true.

The true hero of the story is, of course, Diggory Venn, and there is so much awesome about him that his character almost makes up for the wretchedness that is Eustacia Vye. What a great character. What a good guy.

Like a lot of classics, this is a book you have to sink yourself into, to let yourself get used to the rhythm of the writing. It's not a book that is easily picked up for 15 minute snatches at a time. It's best enjoyed when you have long quiet stretches of time to really enjoy Hardy's prose, even when he is writing about what kind of flower grows on the heath.

I am often disappointed by classics, often left with the feeling of why on earth such a terrible book would be considered something a modern reader would enjoy. I didn't feel that way with this one. I genuinely enjoyed reading it, even if I couldn't necessarily stand the people I was reading about. (less)

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Jun 23, 2008 J rated it 4 of 5 stars

There used to be a lot more words in the world. Now we're all about short, blunt sentences. So obvious. So boring.

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Nov 26, 2012 Christopher H. rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: british-literature, historical-fiction, victorian-literature, thomas-hardy, favorites, read-in-2010, my-western-canon, favorite-rereads, read-in-2011, read-in-2012, read-in-2013

Every once in a great while you read a novel that just knocks you back onto your keister. Well, for me, this was just one of those novels. I finished reading Thomas Hardy's The Return of the Native several days ago, and it made such an impression upon me that I turned to page one, and began it all over again! The first impression? Wow! Upon finishing it for the second time? I concur with the first impression.

This is the fourth in Hardy's series of eight 'Wessex' novels, all being set in his nati...more

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Jul 04, 2008 Frank rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I kept falling asleep at the beginning of this book. Finally I gave up. I mentioned to my friend Rich that I'd stalled out, and he quoted his high school English teacher, whose words predicted Rich's own experience of the novel: "For the first fifty pages, we would think Return of the N the worst book we had ever read and after that it would seem the best book we had ever read." So I pressed on, and sure enough, around page fifty the book grabbed me and didn't let go till I finished.

One of the...more I kept falling asleep at the beginning of this book. Finally I gave up. I mentioned to my friend Rich that I'd stalled out, and he quoted his high school English teacher, whose words predicted Rich's own experience of the novel: "For the first fifty pages, we would think Return of the N the worst book we had ever read and after that it would seem the best book we had ever read." So I pressed on, and sure enough, around page fifty the book grabbed me and didn't let go till I finished.

One of the main characters in this novel is named Diggory Venn, and I thought of Venn diagrams while reading this book, which is about intersecting circles of romantic desire. (It turns out, though, that the novel was published in 1878, and John Venn didn't introduce his diagram until 1881.) Still, the diagram seems to evoke the complicated connections among the five major characters, whose very names are wonderful: Diggory Venn, Clement (Clym) Yeobright, Eustacia Vye, Thomasin Yeobright, and Damon Wildeve.

In The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield mentions that he likes Eustacia Vye. I still can't figure out why. She is a great character, though--proud, imperious, impetuous. Hardy describes her as "the raw material of a divinity. On Olympus she would have done well," he writes, for "She had the passions and instincts which make a model goddess, that is, those which make not quite a model woman." Indeed, this character who might have been at home as a goddess on Olympus meets a tragic end amid the mortal constraints of the desolate Egdon Heath.

I like reading Hardy during the summers (I read Tess of the D'Urbervilles over the summer nine years ago, and tried and failed to read Jude the Obscure the following summer. (Maybe I should go back and give it another try, too.) The bleakness of his vision is easier to take when the world is green and sweet leisure is plentiful. This one's somewhat less bleak than Tess, though, given its ending which, according to a footnote from Hardy, was made sunnier because of "certain circumstances of serial publication."(less)

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Apr 01, 2008 Erin rated it 4 of 5 stars

Crushed by Things Beyond Control: A Review of The Return of the Native
Poor Thomas Hardy. He was pursued by a fate almost as cruel as that which crushes his characters. As a boy he was too well educated to pursue a quiet life on the heath, when he grew up to his novels were too mercilessly condemned by Victorian moralists for him to live in peace as a writer. He turned exclusively to poetry (depending on your stance that can also be counted as tragedy) and his estranged wife died, and although h...more Crushed by Things Beyond Control: A Review of The Return of the Native
Poor Thomas Hardy. He was pursued by a fate almost as cruel as that which crushes his characters. As a boy he was too well educated to pursue a quiet life on the heath, when he grew up to his novels were too mercilessly condemned by Victorian moralists for him to live in peace as a writer. He turned exclusively to poetry (depending on your stance that can also be counted as tragedy) and his estranged wife died, and although he married again he continued writing poetry about his other wife, the dead one. Fortunately for Mr. Hardy the fate that buffeted him throughout his life was a kinder one the preternaturally punitive fate that tends to crush the characters in his novels. Return of the Native is no exception.
The native is Clement Yoebright and his return to Egdon Heath is precipitated by his boredom with success in the diamond industry in Paris and his longing to lead a more meaningful life. He returns home hoping to make a satisfying life for himself by educating the poor Heath dwellers. Instead he becomes entangled with the beautiful and capricious Eustacia Vye for whom the word Paris signifies all the glamour that her life had been lacking. The arrival of Clym Yoebright therefor marks the end of Eustacia's affair with Damon Wildeve who promptly marries Thomasin Yoebright, something he had been promising to do for quite a while. Then the machinations of fate begin to move, and Thomas Hardy makes is clear that human loves and lives are merely grist for the mill and the millstone is crude and heavy. In some books the characters engage in a futile struggle to escape their fates but not so with Thomas Hardy; Clym runs madly into Eustacia's arms, Damon hurries from the house he shares with his wife and daughter to the carriage he will carry Eustacia away in, and a sobbing Eustacia rushes headlong through the driving rain to drown herself in Shadwater Weir. Of course her husband and lover throw themselves in after her.
The pleasure in reading Thomas Hardy comes from lavish descriptions of the heath, a tone that strikes the perfect chord between compassion and strict morality, and the grim precision of inexorable fate in action. While The Return of the Native deals ostensibly with Clym Yoebright and the events precipitated by his return it seems to me that Eustacia Vye is the true subject of the novel. The heath is her torment, the play between Hardy's compassion and morality reaches a fever pitch in regard to Eustacia, and it she who is the most cruelly smitten by the hand of fate. Eustacia's internal struggles are the most dynamic and the narrative dips into her thoughts and feelings more frequently than those of any other character. And it is Eustacia who rebels against cruel fate and gives voice to a sentiment befitting almost any of Hardy's greatest characters:
"How I have tried and tried to be a splendid woman, and how destiny has been against me! ...I do not deserve my lot!" She cried in a frenzy of bitter revolt. "O, the cruelty of putting me into this ill-conceived world! I was capable of much; but I have been injured and blighted and crushed by things beyond my control! O, how hard it is of Heaven to devise such tortures for me, who have done no harm to heaven at all!"
Not everyone likes an author who occasionally averts his gaze from the matter at hand to observe instead the movements of the clouds, or insects that herald the passage of seasons, or the difference between trees that grow unmolested in a sheltered hollow and those that grow exposed to the wind on a high and distant hill. I can understand why some might have an aversion to such lashings of rain and thrashing of branches, because in the hands of a lesser author it all turns into a purple mush of twilight followed by the obligatory fiery sunset. But Hardy is made of sterner stuff and so is his prose, so his well-executed landscapes are somber and his sunsets are full of foreboding. The heath reveals not only the state of mind of the characters living on it, it reveals what is within their very hearts:
"Take all the varying hates felt by Eustacia Vye towards the heath, and translate them into loves, and you have the heart of Clym. He gazed upon the wide prospect as he walked, and was glad."
And the heath represents an uncompromising morality that Hardy seems to regard simultaneously as overly hard but necessary.
Like many Victorian authors Hardy is concerned with morality but he surpasses many of them in that his concern is sincere and complex: he shows compassion for both those who have strayed from conventional mores but remain pure-hearted and good (Clym) as well as those who willfully exhibit clear moral failings (Eustacia.) His endless sympathy for the faithless Eustacia is indeed almost too much for my taste at times, but her immense inner torment and remorse render her redeemable at the very moment of her suicide, and the end she is a sympathetic figure. (When she lies dead "the stateliness of look which had been almost too marked for a dweller in a country domicile had at last found an artistically happy background.") At the crux of Hardy's work there is an interesting tension between two opposing possibilities: Are these people suffering all of these terrible calamities because God is punishing them for the error of their ways, or were they simply born into a world too cold and cruel for sensitive souls such as these?
Wether it is the hand of a vengeful god at work, or merely the random blows of a fate precipitated by the heedless actions of men, Hardy goes out of his way to lay his characters low. The lengths he goes to probably seemed more believable in a Victorian milieu, next to any single occurrence in any novel penned by Dickens the improbable events that litter Hardy's novels seem impeccably realistic, but to a contemporary reader the role of coincidence and accident can seem a little forced and artificial. But the importance of the minor details; the unopened door, the unopened letter, are necessary for Hardy because his characters are completed by their downfalls. Had Clym merely grown tired of Eustacia, or had Eustacia merely left then they would both seem superficial and petty rather than tragic. The immensity of their suffering as they grapple with their consciences proves that they were meant for better things had fate not trapped them with tests that they were doomed to fail. At the close of his brief preface Hardy writes that "it is pleasant to dream that some spot in the extensive tract whose southwestern quarter is here described, may be the heath of that traditionary King of Wessex---Lear." It comes as no surprise that this was one of Hardy's pleasant dreams since King Lear exemplifies a distilled form of classic tragedy that is rampant in his work.
Occasionally I have come across novels in which compelling characters move convincingly through well constructed plots and yet, I feel somehow unsatisfied at the end, as if all those pages turned were just ephemeral paper after all and nothing had happened. This is never the case with Thomas Hardy, because although he has his faults he is a thoughtful serious writer who is worthy of his vast and somber heath.

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Sep 15, 2010 Jen Padgett Bohle rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: anti-victorian, naturalism, british-classics

"Just a small town girl, livin' in a lonely world. She took the midnight train goin' anywhere..."
Yep, Journey and Thomas Hardy DO have something in common: They both understand a woman's intense yearnings for something beyond small town life.

The best advice I can give to any would-be readers of Return of the Native is to stay with this tale; it gets better and better. In all honesty, one could probably skip the first 3 chapters (roughly 40 pages) and not miss much . I love Hardy's imagery and d...more "Just a small town girl, livin' in a lonely world. She took the midnight train goin' anywhere..."
Yep, Journey and Thomas Hardy DO have something in common: They both understand a woman's intense yearnings for something beyond small town life.

The best advice I can give to any would-be readers of Return of the Native is to stay with this tale; it gets better and better. In all honesty, one could probably skip the first 3 chapters (roughly 40 pages) and not miss much . I love Hardy's imagery and descriptive flights of fancy, but 40 pages of country customs and heath descriptions are too much even for the most dedicated reader.

This is quite a love triangle, and even beyond that, Hardy lets very few get out alive or unscathed. This is a book to be read on autumn or winter nights, preferably with some bourbon in hand. (Though if you’ve read Jude the Obscure, this is a notch below that on the Hardy Tragedy Scale) Eustacia Vye, the beautiful but melancholy protagonist, seems more complex and human than Tess Durbyfield or Jude or just about any character from previous Hardy works --- she is instantly recognizable to any woman who is or has been trapped in a small town and dreams of glamour and a dazzling world beyond the horizon. She is, like most people, somewhere in the middle of good and evil, with occasional dalliances at the extremes. Naturally, it is her dalliances at the more sinister extremes that set the tragedy wheels a rolli’n.

Most of the plot revolves around Eustacia's machinations to leave Egdon Heath behind for the city, and she spends her days wandering the moors, dreaming of city life and charming Wildeve, a handsome local man who can give her the chance to escape the drudgery of the heath. When she hears that Clym Yeobright, a native of Egdon Heath who has been a jeweler in Paris for several years, is visiting his mother for Christmas ,well, you can surely imagine what happens next. The ideological clash that then ensues between Clym and Eustacia forms the central tension of the novel and is one of the best in 19th century literature. Eustacia wants city life and a modicum of gentility and status, while Clym has noble (if a bit patronizing) notions of staying in town and educating the mean, uncouth working class. Due to one of Hardy’s convenient coincidences (and there are multitudes of these highly suspect plot devices strewn about, but somehow they don’t diminish the beauty of this novel), Clym must !gasp! use his hands and join that awful working class. Problem is, he likes an honest day’s work and even takes to !the horror! singing while working. Well, Eustacia’s had it up to there with Clym’s man-of-the-people noble savage gig and takes matters into her own hands.

There’s also, if you need more enticements, Diggory Venn, the reddleman (a traveling salesman of red dye used for marking herds of sheep. His skin consequently turns red.) He’s a garish image but unequivocally moral and good (although a bit precious and a deus ex machina). Apparently, as the narrator tells us, seeing a reddleman was a horrifying ordeal for a child and marked “an epoch in [his] life.” Can you imagine seeing a man who looks like popular depictions of the christian devil just walking into a bar in the middle of nowhere?

Read this because Hardy is one of the most atmospheric writers in the English language and creates such indelible images. I was so taken with the heaths that I had to google them and see them outside of my own mind. Like Dickens, Hardy wrote mostly in serials for magazines, and relied on suspense and sensationalism to keep readers wanting more. I don’t know how he got such a reputation among adults and students as a scary old timey writer --- his is the stuff of yellow journalism and true crime novels today, except that he writes so beautifully and skillfully. Once you become accustomed to the parlance of the day and the rambling sentence structure, he’s better than just about anything on tv. I like to imagine dainty Victorian ladies reading this with their ankles all covered and mouths agape, scandalized but secretly titillated by Hardy.

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Jan 23, 2009 Chrissa rated it 3 of 5 stars

The chief pleasure and chief fault of this story are at once the same, the clear, poetic descriptions of Egdon heath, which render the presence of the actors in the story supernumerary upon its impassive surface. When Hardy speaks of savage flies who are ignorant of larders or when he describes the way the heath replicates the face of nature and the season, the book is beautiful, and I am captivated.

When he describes the people who blunder through each others' lives, I wait impatiently for them...more

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Dec 23, 2008 Em rated it 3 of 5 stars

I thought it would be nice to re-read all the classics I had to read for AP English, so I started with this one since I remembered liking it in high school. How different it is to read things now,alone, instead of with a whole class and with the fear of Mrs. Hazen's test coming up in my mind. I almost didn't make it through the book simply because i couldn't get through the first chapter. I didn't really care to read a whole chapter about the surrounding countryside, but once characters were int...more

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Feb 22, 2013 Zara rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: classics, historical-19th-century

I've read a couple of Thomas Hardys so far, and I think they all have beautiful moments but can be a little to tragic and crazy. It's the same with Return of the Native.

It opens with a fantastic scene on the moors, with the 'natives' lighting bonfires. The parts on the moor were my favourites. Hardy infuses the text with atmosphere and spine-tingling descriptions. However I did feel at times like I was in the midst of a tragedy bleaker and darker than Hamlet (a play I love, don't get me wrong),...more

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Nov 08, 2012 Shawna Buchanan rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I listened to this audiobook because it's read by Alan Rickman. Otherwise, I probably would never have thought to pick it up. It's a bit slow going at first. I was only half paying attention through the first few chapters, I suppose, but since listening to Alan Rickman read the kind of descriptive language this is written in is akin to listening to a classical score of some kind, I wasn't bothered by this. The story does pick up a bit once you get a sense of who the main characters are and what...more

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Dec 24, 2011 Suzanne rated it 4 of 5 stars

Despite an incredulous plot at times, I appreciated this book for its sheer language, depth of thought and observation (although cumbersome at times), detail of landscape, and love for a time, place, and ethos that was exotic/foreign even in Hardy's era. Not as moralistic, flowery, or allegorical as Hawthorne and not as quaint as Dickens, Hardy's Return of the Native nevertheless reflects something of both those authors and their characteristics. From another angle, add a few dwarfs, beasts, and...more

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Sep 08, 2011 Alex rated it 4 of 5 stars

I came into this one worried. Hardy's "Tess of the D'urbervilles" is on my "never could finish" list. It bored me to tears, and has been forgotten. but with the finishing of Return of the Native, I am now drawn to find out if I share that old sentiment, because I found this brilliant.

Sure, the language is gorgeous when it is done being dense... often the language can be as dense as the heath itself, which goes miles toward explicating the setting. I also hugely appreciated what felt like "upper-...more I came into this one worried. Hardy's "Tess of the D'urbervilles" is on my "never could finish" list. It bored me to tears, and has been forgotten. but with the finishing of Return of the Native, I am now drawn to find out if I share that old sentiment, because I found this brilliant.

Sure, the language is gorgeous when it is done being dense... often the language can be as dense as the heath itself, which goes miles toward explicating the setting. I also hugely appreciated what felt like "upper-class pop culture of the late 1800s"... Hardy made references freely with a humorous barb to them, like a rendition of VH1's "I love the 1880s". I can't help but feel I lost a certain spark of humor in not understanding every reference, but I appreciated the touch, as it made the book more accessible to me than many other similar ones.

Of course, the best humor here is in the original bits. The non-vital characters provide incredible, effective comic relief, especially in the form of the Cantle family... Grandfer is simply a charming old man, and Christian, in his superstitious and cowardly form, is among the best characters here... he's the original debbie downer, and far more humorous for it. But certainly, there is some pure humor here... the scene early on at Wildeve's with all the heathfolk is one of the most amusing i've come across in this era.

But the true beauty of Egdon is the heath itself... the oppressive, depressive force that the characters are inextricably tied to... and that is the true beauty of the book as well. It doesn't hurt that Eustacia Vye is so dangerously bewitching as to be able to ensnare across realities (she and Lady Brett Ashley... what does this say about my tastes, honestly?), but the power is in how tragic she is. It's in the sense of being trapped that we all feel at times, and the sense of futility of life in the heath. The idea that in all joy there must eventually come sorrow. The longing for what can never be, the weakness where we cannot allow ourselves to move forward when it's easier to flail. Certainly there is romance and humor and even some action (largely due to the conniving and clever natures of almost every character here), but it all comes back to the somber heath. Those who long for it have it overwhelm them... those who wish to escape are trapped... and the heath itself goes unchanged.

I'm hesitant to favorite a book I've read but once, or give a full 5 stars to one that does at times get dry and drawn out, but for the most part, a patient reader willing to put the time in will get more out of it than they'd expect... it's an incredibly rewarding experience with some unforgettable characters and potential for absolutely sparkling discussion if you can find someone else who has given it the time.

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Nov 27, 2010 Patrick Gibson rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: contemporary-literature

I am having a great time re-reading Hardy's novels. I couldn't get enough of his witting in college (I must have been a maudlin soul) and am not taking up the gauntlet again. This classic is about a romantic pentagon set on England's Egdon Heath in the mid 19th century. Those raised on the heath view it comfortably as homespun landscape, but newcomers consider it desolate, bleak and even hostile. For this heath with its mysterious rainbarrow is a curious juxtaposition of ancient ways and relics...more I am having a great time re-reading Hardy's novels. I couldn't get enough of his witting in college (I must have been a maudlin soul) and am not taking up the gauntlet again. This classic is about a romantic pentagon set on England's Egdon Heath in the mid 19th century. Those raised on the heath view it comfortably as homespun landscape, but newcomers consider it desolate, bleak and even hostile. For this heath with its mysterious rainbarrow is a curious juxtaposition of ancient ways and relics with more "modern" lifestyle. Romance blooms and fades, then erupts in relentless waves--resulting in inevitable tragedy.

The tenuous emotional stasis of two men and two women is thrown out of balance by the arrival home of its native son, Clym Yeobright. Returning after several successful years in the diamond business in Paris this philanthropic young man cherishes a dream of opening a school for the folks in the port of Budmouth or even locally for the common heath dwellers.

But other strong-willed and tender-hearted young residents of the Heath have their own private agendas: Wildeve, engineer reduced to innkeeper, is fatally attracted to Eustacia Vye; Diggory Venn, the quietly observant reddleman, harbors hopeless devotion to Thomasin Yeobright. Lastly there shines the dark-haired wild beauty, Eustacia, who longs to depart the Heath for cosmopolitan world centers where she will be appreciated and sought after. Meanwhile Clym's mother secretly hopes for an alliance between the cousins. Clym's homecoming proves the catalyst which ignites deeply emotional events, maternal anguish, and spousal grief.

Despite the apparent disparity in the external circumstances of Hardy's characters and modern readers, we are gradually drawn in by his deft maneuvering of the simple, direct plotline. Helplessly we are ensnared into the complex interactions of his main characters. Sometimes indifferent, sometimes reflecting the moods of humankind, Nature provides an ever present back drop for the mummers of life to perform their eternal roles of misguided love. One of my all-time favorite novels, this classic will haunt readers because of the stark honesty of its passion. Like the heath moths drawn irresistibly to Eustacia's flame, the characters must act out their predetermined roles, while casual humanity (Greek chorus-like) can but look on with awe, as they--like us--contemplate the mysterious forces of the human heart.
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May 25, 2010 Surreysmum rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 1983, classics-british

[These notes were made in 1983:]. Another Hardy I enjoyed wholeheartedly! (This could become a habit). Here the "nobleman beneath his station" is really out of place - a sort of alien creature, red from top to toe (a seller of red sheep-marking). But this time, if Hardy's protestations are to be believed, he wasn't really meant to get the girl, and Hardy's principal interest was clearly with his "upper" heroine, Eustacia Vye, her less-than-satisfactory lover, Wildeve, and her much-bedeviled husb...more

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Jun 24, 2009 Bruce rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Egdon Heath is a sparsely settled wilderness in the southwest of England. It’s dominated by the wind, the sky and the feral vegetation of fern and furze. It is, as the author introduces it in the first chapter, “a face on which time has made but little impression.” To its native inhabitants it’s a quiet county refuge from the bustle and commotion of the mid-nineteenth century, but to young Eustacia Vye it’s a wilderness of exile from civilized life from which she has little hope of escape. Damon...more

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May 17, 2009 Adrian Colesberry rated it 5 of 5 stars

This was my second Hardy. I loved The Mayor of Casterbridge so much that I went right into this one. The relentless breaking of the character in the first book made me like this one a bit better. In The Return of the Native, the protagonist's hope is not destroyed at the end. (I think it's in this book where there's a long description of a walk through a heath that is poetry. But regardless of what passage you're reading, Hardy's writing is the most beautiful prose I've ever read.

I was so absorb...more

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Jan 13, 2010 Steve rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is Hardy's best novel and reveals all too chillingly the repercussions which can surround misunderstandings and missed opportunities. The author has also brilliantly allocated a key role in the unfolding of the tragic events to the unforgiving landscape of Egdon Heath which from the opening chapter assumes a mantle of being one of the central characters in the plot. The heath will cause the demise of more than one of the human protagonists which people this story of misdirected love and avi...more

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Aug 30, 2009 Steve rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: literature

I sortof read this book my senior year of high school in Mr. Runtz's class. It was our reading over spring break. The first chapters dragged on and on and on and on with descriptions of mountain side that contributed nothing to anything. Later that semester, it was Mr. Runtz's birthday, and Ed Mood, the faculty member who was the technical theater director (I built sets for plays in high school) took some theater kids to Runtz's room the night before his birthday. We draped black theater curtain...more

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Jul 23, 2012 Suzanne rated it 2 of 5 stars

I didn't like this. The names, Clym, Thomasin, Eustacia, Yeobright, Wlldeve, etc. were weird, to say the least. These odd characters are not warm, not likeable, not even just dull. They live in a small town, but are forever sending each other letters. They die on their way to and from each other's homes, and I don't care.
Mrs. Yeobright is Victorian, and believes that Thomasin and Clym have made bad choices in their marriages. This is not a new concept. Get over it.
Clym may be a central character...more

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May 07, 2012 Ali rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The return of the native
As I have mentioned before, I along with some friends have undertaken a Hardy reading challenge. Thomas Hardy is one of my favourite authors – and I know many other people love his writing too.

As I have read all the Hardy novels before and nearly all the short stories this was a re-read for me although I had remembered surprisingly little about it. That for me was a bonus as it was almost like reading it for the first time – although things did start to come back to me a...more The return of the native
As I have mentioned before, I along with some friends have undertaken a Hardy reading challenge. Thomas Hardy is one of my favourite authors – and I know many other people love his writing too.

As I have read all the Hardy novels before and nearly all the short stories this was a re-read for me although I had remembered surprisingly little about it. That for me was a bonus as it was almost like reading it for the first time – although things did start to come back to me as I read. Hardy readers beware – there are spoilers ahead.

In The Return of the Native, Hardy uses the landscape of Egdon Heath to set the mood for the entire novel. The Heath is almost a character in itself – a timeless landscape which carries the reminders of the civilisations that have come before, it is a dark looming presence. The characters are divided both physically and emotionally by the heath, needing to traverse it endlessly to interact with one another. Most characters love the heath, work on it and understand its beauties and its histories others particularly Eustacia Vye are imprisoned by it and long to get away from it. Hardy presents us with a way of life which was already under threat – the reddleman was already becoming a rare sight in these times, he continually reminds us of the passage of time, and the smallness of man upon the larger landscape of the heath, old traditions and myths are woven into the story of the people who live their lives on this most impressive landscape.

This was Hardy’s first real attempt at tragedy as character after character is driven to destruction in the shadow of Egdon Heath. Eustacia Vye is beautiful and capricious, living on the Heath with her grandfather, she is entangled with Wildeve using bonfires to signal to him across the heath – but he is supposed to be marrying Thomasin Yeobright, the cousin of the returned native – Clym Yeobright. However when Eustacia hears about Clym who is returning from Paris –a place she can only dream of – she firmly sets her sights on him – planning to have him return to Paris with her. Seeing it as a punishment of Eustacia, Wildeve marries Thomasin – and Eustacia gets her man, although in doing so – she sets him against his mother. This falling out has tragic repercussions from which Clym never really recovers. Whether Eustacia really loves poor Clym is open to debate - yet their union is not a happy one. Despite Clym’s insistence that he’ll never return to Paris – but become a school master in Budmouth instead – Eustacia still has her sights set on the boulevards of her imagination. In preparing to become a school master – Clym sets himself to reading – and in so doing damages his eyesight to the point where he can no longer read, and in fact has his vision seriously impaired. Not wishing to be idle – he takes to furze cutting alongside other colourful characters of the heath, instead of being proud of her young husband for his industry and flexibility – Eustacia is horrified by and ashamed of his work. Meanwhile, innocent, gentle Thomasin is married to the selfish and grasping Wildeve who after inheriting money plans to run away with Eustacia. Thomasin however is loved quietly and honourably by the reddleman Diggory Venn – it is Venn who helps to ensure she is married to Wildeve rather than disgraced by his desertion of her, he is instrumental in returning to her money that had fallen into her husband’s hands. It almost goes without saying – that Hardy punishes those who the reader may see as deserving punishment – Eustacia and Wildeve are doomed – though poor Clym is left heartbroken and guilt ridden. The only characters finding real happiness are Thomasin and the wonderful reddleman – who gives up being a reddleman and acquires a dairy herd. This happy ending for Diggory and Thomasin – was not what Hardy had originally intended – but I have to say it is more satisfying than the ending we might have otherwise had.
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Jul 07, 2010 Stewart rated it 4 of 5 stars

About 45 years ago while in high school, I had to read "The Return of the Native." I read a biography of Thomas Hardy by Claire Tomalin a few weeks ago and decided to reread his 1878 novel. After so many years, I remembered not one detail of the book or, for that matter, even the plot summary. I have come to the conclusion that after 15 years, maybe sooner, the typical reader (who doesn't have a photographic memory) will have forgotten all the details of any book he or she has read.
I enjoyed "...more

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Jan 18, 2010 Patrick rated it 3 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. The uncontrolable march of Destiny sets the tone for The Return of the Native once individual choices casts the die of chance. The book is filled with misinterpretation/miscommunication/mistiming that leads the characters to their ultimate doom. Starting from the inheritance issue to Christian lighting the bonfire to inadvertantly attract Wildeve, the story had numerous miscommunications that seems to have been dealt by fate that eventually led to disasterous consequences. In this way, the book...more The uncontrolable march of Destiny sets the tone for The Return of the Native once individual choices casts the die of chance. The book is filled with misinterpretation/miscommunication/mistiming that leads the characters to their ultimate doom. Starting from the inheritance issue to Christian lighting the bonfire to inadvertantly attract Wildeve, the story had numerous miscommunications that seems to have been dealt by fate that eventually led to disasterous consequences. In this way, the book pays homage to Shakespearean tragedy of Romeo and Julliet with messages coming to late and intentions that were not fully realised.

To me, it seems that Eustacia and Clym's marriage was the result of not having the same vision and complementary personalities. Whereas Eustacia was a passionate woman who wanted a taste of the city life, Clym was a calm man who after 5 years of city life wanted to live in the country and help his fellow country men by teaching them. The tragedy in this book is despite Eustacia and Clym being forthright with each other from the very beginning of what they wanted and expected from their marriage, they still went on and married each other in the hopes of changing the others mind. For me Eustacia was not a bad girl, she just wanted to have an exciting life that befits her personality but instead she was in an environment that was at odds with her character. Of course, this is a modern interpretation of the book.

I am sure that to Hardy's Victorian readers Eustacia and Wildeve were seen as the id gone awry. Because they openly showed their passions toward each other, they eventually died. The woman who tended to the hearth was the ideal back then as was the man who was the faithful husband and doting father. Because of their transgressions, Wildeve and Eustacia had to die. Although some think that Eustacia and Wildeve were really in love with each other, I did not get that impression. I think that they were heavily infatuated with each other because they were different from their respective spouses. It was the case of the grass is greener on the other side.

I did enjoy the ending in which the unconditional love of Venn the reddleman eventually leads to a happy marraige with his love object Thompasin.

The writing itself was beautifully poetic in some cases while in others it was merely ordinary. I especially like his description of feeling between Wildeve and Eustacia at the dance. (less)

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