The Return of the Native (Oxford World's Classics) - Softcover

Hardy, Thomas

3.87

38,590 ratings by Goodreads

9780192834065: The Return of the Native (Oxford World's Classics)

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0192834061 ISBN 13: 9780192834065

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 1998

View all copies of this ISBN edition:

The passionate Eustacia Vye feels herself imprisoned in the wild, isolated Egdon Heath ("`Tis my cross...and will be my death"), and although she longs for a love that will free her from it, her marriage only serves to trap her deeper within it. Her husband, Clem Yeobright, is the native of
the novel's title, returned from Paris with a scheme for educating the heath-folk. Though Hardy's story is one of fatally tangled relationships, the greatest effect upon the reader is made by Egdon Heath itself: `The storm was its lover, and the wind its friend.'

This edition, unlike any other currently available, retains the text of the novel's first edition, without the later changes that substantially altered Hardy's original intentions. For the first time it is possible for modern readers to share the experience of those who read the story when it
appeared in 1878.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

From the Publisher:

This fine novel sets in opposition two of Thomas Hardy's most unforgettable creations: his heroine, the sensuous, free-spirited Eustacia Vye, and the solemn, majestic stretch of upland in Dorsetshire he called Egdon Heath. The famous opening reveals the haunting power of that dark, forbidding moon where proud Eustacia fervently awaits a clandestine meeting with her lover, Damon Wildeve. But Eustacia's dreams of escape are not to be realized--neither Wildeve nor the returning native Clym Yeobright can bring her salvation. Injured by forces beyond their control, Hardy's characters struggle vainly in the net of destiny. In the end, only the face of the lonely heath remains untouched by fate in this masterpiece of tragic passion, a tale that perfectly epitomizes the author's own unique and melancholy genius.

From the Back Cover:

Leak and savage, Egdon Heath seems to breathe darkness and it claws back those who rise above it. Against this background Hardy's players come together, weaving a web of deceit and death.

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.