Christie's review
The Return of the Native (Modern Library Classics)
by Thomas Hardy
Christie's review
The Return of the Native (Modern Library Classics) by Thomas Hardy
Christie's review
rating:
bookshelves:
the-classics
Okay, this book is a linguist's brain candy. Hardy uses language that is intended to be savored. One of the difficulties of reading a text like this is the degrees of seperation I have from the words UNLESS I read them aloud. Odd, to me, how much different the text lives in the spoken word. I was reading the first chapter to my daughter outloud and (while she knocked off to sleep before paragraph 2) I was enthralled with it. Made me want to read the whole thing aloud. Frankly, though, the description of the environment was my favorite part of the book. The characters, like so many of Hardy's, were utterly unlikeable. It isn't that I didn't relate to them, it is that they rang so hollow and were, intentionally, so ordinary. This novel wasn't the screaming success that Tess was for Hardy, but it was a good read if you enjoy words.
