The native of the title is Clym Yeobright, who returns to the area from the bright society of Paris and, as any reader of Hardy knows, all is not smooth. He is quickly taken by and marries the one woman he should not--Eustacia Vye. The suffering that follows is mitigated somewhat by the ending.
The native of the title is Clym Yeobright, who returns to the area from the bright society of Paris and, as any reader of Hardy knows, all is not smooth. He is quickly taken by and marries the one woman he should not--Eustacia Vye. The suffering that follows is mitigated somewhat by the ending.
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Find The Return of the Native Thomas Hardy in PDF, EPUB, ebook, audiobook, print, or library editions.
Find The Return of the Native Thomas Hardy in PDF, EPUB, ebook, audiobook, print, or library editions.
7 books in catalog
Set against the rugged, semi-fictional landscape of Wessex, nineteenth-century English fiction gained a deep exploration of rural class struggles, tragic fate, and social constraints in novels such as Tess of the d'Urbervilles and Far From the Madding Crowd. Thomas Hardy built this enduring regional setting based on the countryside of his native Dorset, crafting complex narratives where characters battle against environmental conditions and rigid social expectations. Although he initially earned his literary reputation through serial prose, Hardy viewed himself primarily as a poet who composed novels mainly to secure financial stability.
Born on June 2, 1840, in Higher Bockhampton near Dorchester, Hardy was the son of a builder and stonemason father and an intellectually curious mother, Jemima, who strongly influenced his early intellectual development. At age sixteen, he was apprenticed to Dorchester architect John Hicks, beginning a career in architecture that included professional work in London. His architectural training and familiarity with southwestern England shaped his detailed spatial descriptions and keen sensitivity to rural heritage.
After debuting in prose fiction with works like Under the Greenwood Tree in 1872, Hardy achieved widespread public success with Far From the Madding Crowd in 1874. Throughout the 1870s and 1880s, he maintained an active publishing schedule with novels such as The Return of the Native, The Mayor of Casterbridge, and The Woodlanders, mostly serialized in popular magazines. Following public controversy and critical backlash over the moral themes in Tess of the d'Urbervilles and Jude the Obscure during the 1890s, Hardy abandoned novel writing entirely and devoted the final decades of his life at Max Gate in Dorchester to poetry until his death on January 11, 1928.
As a Victorian realist influenced by Romanticism and writers like William Wordsworth, Hardy combined naturalistic fatalism with acute social critique. His fiction repeatedly presents tragic protagonists struggling against personal passions, declining agricultural traditions, and unforgiving social circumstances. He mapped his stories onto the semi-fictional region of Wessex, transforming rural South West England into a unified literary setting. Beyond his realistic prose, Hardy incorporated elements of folklore and the supernatural into his poetry and early fiction such as The Hand of Ethelberta, reflecting a nuanced engagement with multiple literary traditions.
7 books in catalog
Set against the rugged, semi-fictional landscape of Wessex, nineteenth-century English fiction gained a deep exploration of rural class struggles, tragic fate, and social constraints in novels such as Tess of the d'Urbervilles and Far From the Madding Crowd. Thomas Hardy built this enduring regional setting based on the countryside of his native Dorset, crafting complex narratives where characters battle against environmental conditions and rigid social expectations. Although he initially earned his literary reputation through serial prose, Hardy viewed himself primarily as a poet who composed novels mainly to secure financial stability.
Born on June 2, 1840, in Higher Bockhampton near Dorchester, Hardy was the son of a builder and stonemason father and an intellectually curious mother, Jemima, who strongly influenced his early intellectual development. At age sixteen, he was apprenticed to Dorchester architect John Hicks, beginning a career in architecture that included professional work in London. His architectural training and familiarity with southwestern England shaped his detailed spatial descriptions and keen sensitivity to rural heritage.
After debuting in prose fiction with works like Under the Greenwood Tree in 1872, Hardy achieved widespread public success with Far From the Madding Crowd in 1874. Throughout the 1870s and 1880s, he maintained an active publishing schedule with novels such as The Return of the Native, The Mayor of Casterbridge, and The Woodlanders, mostly serialized in popular magazines. Following public controversy and critical backlash over the moral themes in Tess of the d'Urbervilles and Jude the Obscure during the 1890s, Hardy abandoned novel writing entirely and devoted the final decades of his life at Max Gate in Dorchester to poetry until his death on January 11, 1928.
As a Victorian realist influenced by Romanticism and writers like William Wordsworth, Hardy combined naturalistic fatalism with acute social critique. His fiction repeatedly presents tragic protagonists struggling against personal passions, declining agricultural traditions, and unforgiving social circumstances. He mapped his stories onto the semi-fictional region of Wessex, transforming rural South West England into a unified literary setting. Beyond his realistic prose, Hardy incorporated elements of folklore and the supernatural into his poetry and early fiction such as The Hand of Ethelberta, reflecting a nuanced engagement with multiple literary traditions.
