Sarah's review
The Return of the Native (Oxford World's Classics)
by Thomas Hardy
Sarah's review
The Return of the Native (Oxford World's Classics) by Thomas Hardy
Sarah's review
rating:
bookshelves:
makes-you-think---
recommended for: passionate souls
When I first read this book I thought it was a poor man's Wuthering Heights. On some level I still do, since Hardy's style was clearly still evolving at this point. But I appreciate so many parts of it so much more now. Hardy's portrait of Eustacia Vye is truly a masterpiece. Her fiery character is one of the best portrayals of a strong female character in anything I've read. Read as a promethean character, Eustacia then gains so much death and her character seems much more cohesive. The other stare of the story? The Heath itself. Hardy's words about the landscape are better than poetry-- his ability to paint a landscape through words is fully realized in Tess.
