The Return of the Native

Written by Thomas Hardy

Narrated by Nicholas Rowe

Return of the Native is one of Thomas Hardy’s most powerful works. Clym Yeobright, the returning native, comes home to the haunted Wessex moors after a cosmopolitan life in Paris. He then marries the proud, imperious and impetuous Eustacia Vye. However, their marriage is not a happy one. They are both caught amidst complicated circles of romantic desire and a series of events that arrive tragic ends. Hardy sixth published novel is full of compassion, melancholy, sympathy and, perhaps most importantly, gorgeous, lyrical prose that anticipates his later career as a poet.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Naxos Audiobooks
• Release date: Feb 28, 2014
• ISBN: 9781843798149

Thomas Hardy

Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) was an English poet and author who grew up in the British countryside, a setting that was prominent in much of his work as the fictional region named Wessex. Abandoning hopes of an academic future, he began to compose poetry as a young man. After failed attempts of publication, he successfully turned to prose. His major works include Far from the Madding Crowd(1874), Tess of the D’Urbervilles(1891) and Jude the Obscure( 1895), after which he returned to exclusively writing poetry.

Reviews for The Return of the Native

[brooke2thomason · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

One of the true classics! Hardy's descriptions of life and society in rural England is a history lesson.

[bilblio · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Oh how I hate this book. I had to study it for English A-level and reading it was torturous. It took me so long, as I kept falling asleep I was so bored.Chapter 1 describes a moor. Chapter 2 describes a man walking across the moor. Chapter 3 describes the man meeting someone on the moor... and so on.The moor is the main character in the book (we concluded at A-level), and while I can spend hours watching the changes on the moors opposite my house I don't really want to spend hours reading about one. I really like Hardy's other novels but I'll only be reading this again if I'm suffering from a prolonged bout of insomnia.

[tess_w · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

[Return of the Native] by Thomas Hardy was the story of Clym, a native to the heath of Edgeron who became educated in Paris but has returned to the heath, for reasons we never do find out. This is my 4th Hardy read and imho is not nearly as well written or as interesting as the others (i.e. [Far from the Madding Crowd], [Tess of D'Urbervilles], [The Mayor of Castorbridge]). Much time is spent on the description of nature and the seasons on the Heath---almost puts me in mind of Dickens and to sleep! The plot reads like a soap opera or a play from Shakespeare: love lost by folly. I vaguely see some of the themes that Hardy is attempting to portray: family, tradition/custom, pride, and fate vs. free will. I just don't feel it's done as well as in the aforementioned novels. If you haven't read Hardy, and I suggest you do, don't start with this one!

[wenestvedt_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

There's nothing like a heavy dose of dark Hardy to wring a deep sigh from the cheeriest breast.

[kiernanmaire · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

One of the few books that I had to read in high school that I (a)remember and (b) recommend.

[tess_schoolmarm · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

[Return of the Native] by Thomas Hardy was the story of Clym, a native to the heath of Edgeron who became educated in Paris but has returned to the heath, for reasons we never do find out. This is my 4th Hardy read and imho is not nearly as well written or as interesting as the others (i.e. [Far from the Madding Crowd], [Tess of D'Urbervilles], [The Mayor of Castorbridge]). Much time is spent on the description of nature and the seasons on the Heath---almost puts me in mind of Dickens and to sleep! The plot reads like a soap opera or a play from Shakespeare: love lost by folly. I vaguely see some of the themes that Hardy is attempting to portray: family, tradition/custom, pride, and fate vs. free will. I just don't feel it's done as well as in the aforementioned novels. If you haven't read Hardy, and I suggest you do, don't start with this one!

[katiekrug · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This classic of British literature was great, despite everyone in it being a hot mess, each in their own way. I loved the tension between love vs. possession and nature vs. society, and Hardy's descriptions of the heath were very evocative, if occasionally over-long. Eustacia is a piece of work, Clym is a boring milquetoast, Wildeve is a d-bag, and Thomasin would benefit from some 21st century ideas of agency. Yes, I'm being a bit flip and reductive, but I truly did enjoy listening to this, especially as read by Alan Rickman. It was my first Hardy but I don't think it will be my last.

[nordie_2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is being read as part of the local Hardy reading group.

This is the first book that I've been able to read with some level of ease - the others' I have struggled at one level or another.

It is a story of mixed connections, lost (and re-found) loves, disappointments and misunderstandings. Very few lives are not altered in some way. Eustacia Vye wishes to escape the desolation and isolation of Egdon Heath, and believes that Clym, returning from Paris, will be the ticket to her escape. However, his dislike of Paris - the main cause of his return - plus a subsequent illness, ensures that Eustacia is further chained to the Heath, her chances of escape ruined.


Clym's cousin, Thomasin, becomes married Wildeve, despite his previous and unresolved dalliance with Eusticia. No one really ever settles, and it all ends in disaster. The heath is another character in this book, presenting an isolating force in the book and enforcing a loneliness on the likes of Eusticia by living so far from her nearest neighbours. Had she - had anyone - lived closer to each other, would things have happened differently?

[alisony-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Hardy is synonymous with 19th century English country landscapes, and never more so than in Return of the Native. Set on the mythical Egdon Heath, this novel is the next best thing to a time machine, so evocative are his descriptions of these bygone Wessex rural scenes. One doesn't just read a Hardy novel - it's a completely immersive virtual reality experience, and for this reason he remains up there as one of my favourite novelists of all time.Although perhaps not so well known as Hardy's greats such as The Mayor of Casterbridge, this is still a very fine novel. In typical Hardy fashion there is heartbreak and tragedy in spades, yet it is the rural landscape that almost becomes the main protagonist. The descriptions are incredibly vivid, yet their conveyance is so deftly subtle that it adds an additional dimension and depth to the story rather than getting in the way of it. Whilst many novels of that era excel at transplanting you as a fly on the wall to the centre of English social history, I can't think of a better way to experience English natural history than through the experience of a Hardy novel. By the end of Return of the Native the heath was as familiar to me as the countryside on my own doorstep. No, on second thoughts, it was significantly more familiar. Our green space has changed in so many ways since that time, but whilst some of the flora and fauna has changed forever (for instance, adders are much rarer in number now in the English countryside than they would have been back then), it is our interaction with it which has changed most acutely. In Hardy's time the average rural dweller had little option but to traverse their local countryside by foot, often travelling many miles in a day to run an errand or visit a neighbour. Imagine, therefore, how much more familiar and in touch with the earth you become when you are literally walking through it's rural midst every day. And that is precisely the experience that Hardy brings with this novel. You feel 19th century England.This was Hardy book number six for me, and thinking I'd already peaked with his best work I was absolutely delighted to be proved wrong with this novel.4 stars - a wonderful sojourn in rural Victorian England.

[m.belljackson · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

In this overdrawn and repetitive novel, Hardy offers up deceitful, tiresome Eustacia Vye in a comedy of errors fraughtwith Thomasin generally being a drag. Reading about artificially tensed gambling is always trying.Mrs. Yeobright, mother of dawdling Clym and aunt to Thomasin, is the bright light, once a reader tires of the inexplicabledevotion of riddleman Venn to Thomasin.As always, Thomas Hardy's nature descriptions soar.

[jon1lambert · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I hope I am not exaggerating when I say that this is a wonderful story. The most interesting character is the reddleman whose name is Diggory Venn. He is a mysterious and unmistakeable figure who appears at every turning point in the book. His trade is selling the dark red substance that is applied to sheep to distinguish them and he tours with his caravan the tangled web that is Egdon Heath. He becomes a mythical and symbolic figure through his red hue, the red substance covering his clothes and body. Sometimes he seems to be the devil, at others he is omniscient and a power for good. His repeated appearance signals action. Some other characters are unforgettable - the passionate Eustacia Vye with her raven hair, her impulsiveness and her knack of making the wrong decisions in love and poor Clym Yeobright, entrepreneur turned homely furze cutter, the native returned, who somehow comes to terms with the misery and despair that inflict him. There are unexpected incidents: gambling for the 50 guineas, the adder bite, the lost glove, the mummers dance, witchcraft and the drowning in the weir. To reread is to see new things and to understand so much more.

[philsyphe · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I like the overall story of “The Return of the Native” but would’ve liked it more if not for the slow pace that occasionally leads to utter tedium. Hardy was one of those authors capable of genius, yet at the same time he’d digress and waffle to the point of irritation.

[brakketh-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Eustacia is so deeply flawed and believable a character. Self-interested and self-aware found her a delightful character. All ends in tragedy (I wasn't a fan of the alternate ending).

[pilgrimjess · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

“A blaze of love and extinction, was better than a lantern glimmer of the same which should last long years.”The novel opens with a reddleman (a seller of red dye used by sheep farmers) riding across Egdon Heath with Thomasin Yeobright in the back of his wagon. Thomasin's marriage to Damon Wildeve was delayed due to an error in the marriage certificate. Wildeve has arranged the error himself because he is infatuated with Eustacia Vye, a beautiful but independently minded young woman, and is uncertain which woman he should marry. Wildeve has fallen down the social scale and sees stability with Thomasin but passion with Eustacia.When Clym Yeobright, Thomasin's cousin and the son of her guardian, returns home from living in Paris he is thrown into this tangled web. Eustacia hates living on Egdon Heath and sees in Clym a means of an escape. Eustacia convinces herself to fall in love Clym even before meeting, breaking off her romance with Wildeve. He in return marries Thomasin. Despite strong objections of his mother Clym marries Eustacia however, this only acts to rekindle Wildeve's desire, despite his marriage.On a stormy rain-swept night, the action comes to a fatal climax.The 'Native' of the title is obviously Clym and no doubt Hardy intended him to be the central character of this novel but in actuality that distinction must fall to Eustacia. Eustacia is not a native of Egdon Heath, she is a native of the fashionable seaside resort of Budmouth who moves into her grandfather's house after the death of her father. She keeps herself apart from the other heath dwellers and is contemptuous for them. They, in turn, look upon her with suspicion. She takes perverse pleasure in being unconventional and is obviously not an easy person to be around. Fate and Destiny are major themes in this novel and Eustacia is central to both. She is an active demonstration of Destiny believing that she can escape Egdon by her will alone. Yet, she displays a readiness to shift the blame for everything that happens to her onto Fate. Eustacia is seen as intense and passionate whereas Wildeve, despite being quick to have his passions aroused is much more shallow. Bonfires are an important feature. Eustacia to the modern reader will seem sexually oppressed yet it is also obvious that a relationship with the slow and steady Clym will never satisfy her yet in contrast a relationship with Wildeve would initially burn fiercely but soon burn itself out.Overall I found this a bit of a slow burner which took a while to really grab me hence the lowish score.

[terris-7 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I enjoyed this classic novel of star-crossed lovers. I felt it was very typical of Hardy's writing, comparing to what I've of his other books, and I liked that. I used to think I was not a big Hardy fan, but the more I read of his works, the more I like him. I will read more :)

[kaitanya64 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Classic Hardy. This book will is definitely a downer, but what did you expect. The portrayal of rural social life and its limitations and the struggles of individuals to find a deep and fulfilling life in an isolated place are beautifully portrayed. The ending is not as tragic as some of Hardy's work, but don't expect to be soothed or uplifted either.

[meandmybooks-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I enjoyed this one tremendously, but I suspect that without Alan Rickman's beautiful reading it would have been a four star, rather than a five star book for me. I found the story very satisfying (though I could have done with rather less about the colors, moisture levels, and textures of Egdon Heath, even if it is, as both Wikipedia and a friend of mine have suggested, the main character, which I'm still not convinced of, btw), and am very pleased with Hardy for being willing to modify his usual doom and gloom ending as a concession to sentimental public taste! Eustacia Vye, superbly loathsome creature that she is, is a memorable character.

[jkdavies · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I liked it, but it was a trudge. There isn't enough rain on the cover!

[lynnb_64 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

There are things I loved about this book and things I strongly disliked. The good things: the description of the heath, which elevated it from simply the setting to character-like status; the character of Eustacia Vye; the serious issues portrayed such as love, loyalty, infidelity. The not-so-good: some of the characters (Clym, Damon) were largely archetypes; Diggery is more of a vehicle to make things happen than a solidly-drawn person; the soap-opera nature of the plot and much of the dialogue.Hardy is a good enough writer that I still liked the book overall and am glad I read it.

[rosalita_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I did it! I persevered and finished off this book just 20 minutes before it was due to vanish from my Kobo in a virtual puff of smoke. After that slow start that had me despairing that anything was ever going to happen, things did pick up and the plot moved along fairly briskly. As the rating says, I'm glad I read it, and I would read more Hardy. In the future, though, I'll be more judicious about how many of those copious footnotes to chase down, as I found more often than not that rather than adding to my understanding of the book they simply impeded the flow of the narrative and made it seem more choppy and uneven than it probably is in actuality. Too many of them were about minute differences between the manuscript version used here (the 1878 serial publication) and later editions, which would have been immensely helpful if I were studying it and looking to make comparisons. As just a regular old reader, however, I found I didn't really give a dingdangdoodle. And I still maintain that I read more than enough about that damned heath in the opening chapters to last me a lifetime. Good grief, no wonder everyone in this book is so freaking depressed. They must have had to listen to Hardy describe their homeland one too many times down the pub.

[missizicks · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This novel is a poem to the ancient beauty of the heath. Hardy's descriptions of the way the light falls across it at different hours, the colours that emerge from it, and its ancient invariability and unwillingness to be tamed are beautiful. The characters who live, work, idle and scheme on the heath are among the best, in my opinion, that Hardy created. Eustacia Vye is a wonderful creation, spirited, intelligent, manipulative and yearning for something to lift her from the doldrums in which she perceives herself to be languishing. Clym Yeobright is an idealistic, naïve young man who turns from his life of wealth to seek a sense of usefulness back among his native people. Damon Wildeve is a scurrilous rake in the mould of Pride & Prejudice's Wickham. There is an element of caricature about them, but Hardy is too skilled a writer to bring forth pure exaggerations of human characteristics. Alongside the main personality traits writ large, Hardy includes subtle contradictions, light and shade, that make them seem modern at the same time as being romantic constructs. Hardy is good at acknowledging the restrictions of female existence in his era while at the same time recognising that women are more than society will permit them to be. It is the women in his books that compel. Given that there isn't a single Thomas Hardy novel that is 100% cheerful, it would be too much to expect things to work out well for these three. But the tragedy that befalls them is tempered by a satisfactory joy for the two other, quieter, central characters, Thomasin Yeobright and Diggory Venn.

[apatt_3 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

“Hurt so good
Come on baby, make it hurt so good”
- John Mellencamp

WUT? Well, reading Thomas Hardy novels always poses this kind of challenge. They hurt, and yet I keep coming back to him because they are indeed good and this kind of hurt is like a good exercise for your EQ. In term of language, I don’t think Hardy’s writing is particularly difficult to access. The more challenging aspects of his books are the initial meticulous scene setting and characters introduction chapters and, of course, the miserable situations that his characters get into.

“Tragedy
When the feeling's gone and you can't go on It's tragedy”

Sorry, I just had a sudden attack of Beegeesitis. Anyway, I am always glad(ish) to be back in Hardyverse, better known as Wessex, a fictional region somewhere in the south of England. A lot of pastoral mayhem seems to take place here so it is probably not an ideal vacation destination (non-existence notwithstanding). In The Return of the Native Hardy again depicts what bad marriages can do. Clym Yeobright, the returning native of the novel’s title, marries the almost preternaturally beautiful Eustacia Vye who is very discontent with her rural surroundings. She yearns for the bright lights, big cities, iStores etc., preferably in Paris. However, she is not a femme fatale, she does her best to be a good, loving wife. Unfortunately her best is of a disastrously low standard and tragedy ensues.

Much of the tragedy stems from people being unable to speak their minds, to be honest, sincere and – most of all – forgiving. Where this novel really resonates with me is the relationship between Clym and his mother. They have a very close, loving relationship until Eustacia (inadvertently) comes between them. The mother, Mrs. Yeobright, has some very strong prejudices about people of ill repute and is very quick to pass judgment on them, her unyielding mentality eventually leads to her downfall. Eustacia’s inability to settle down, to compromise with her circumstances also leads to a lot of grief and much gnashing of teeth.

As usual Hardy’s characters are very believable and vivid, and it is interesting that there is no actual villain in this book. Some characters become antagonists of sort merely through very unwise decision making and impropriety. The hero of the book is also not Clym the protagonist, but a sincere, helpful and humble man called Diggory Venn who is a “reddleman” by profession. Basically, he goes around marking flocks of sheep with a red colour (a mineral called "reddle"). Not much call for such services these days I imagine, but it makes him a fair amount of money and also causes his entire body to be red coloured. It plays hell with his attempts at courting a certain young lady, but he eventually finds a way. According to Wikipedia Hardy had a tack on a happy ending for commercial purposes so not all the characters are down in the dumps by the end of the book. Left to his own devices he would rather depress the hell out of his readers.

Over all this is a typically depressing book by Thomas Hardy. Yet I really like it and recommend it for people who are not overly sensitive or those who are too insensitive and need to emote a little.

“Life's a piece of shit, when you look at it
Life's a laugh and death's a joke, it's true
You'll see its all a show, keep 'em laughin as you go
Just remember that the last laugh is on you”
- Monty Python

Well, after all that I don’t have any room left to quote an eloquent passage from this book. There are always plenty of those in a Hardy novel (so that’s hardly novel!).

[evilmoose · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

An amazing work of art, this would be great to do as a tutored read I think (or follow along with a tutored read at any rate). I'll need to re-read it as there's so much I've missed. The sort of book that reminds me how little depth there is to many of the books I read. Audiobook read by Alan Rickman was initially distracting, because Alan Rickman was reading a book to me, but then I was so drawn into the tale (relationship drama! wedding mishaps! old loves! passionate new love! bonfires! the heath! death! love triangle?) that I stopped noticing him. A couple of chapters from the end when people started hurling themselves into the water, I started giggling with the thought that maybe all of the main characters were going to hurl themselves in and drown, and the rest of the novel would just be pleasant descriptions of the heath.

[starbox_2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

"Oh, how hard it is of Heaven to devise such tortures for me!",, 29 November 2015This review is from: Thomas Hardy: The Return of the Native (Paperback)Set on the great, bleak expanse of Egdon Heath, this is a gothic tale of love, despair and misunderstandings.Centred on the imperious Eustacia Vye, resentful at having to live in this god-forsaken place, we see her at first carrying on a clandestine romance with the affianced Damon Wildeve. And then into the picture comes the returned native, Clym Yeobright, cousin of Damon's fiancee. He has been carving out a successful career in Paris, and would seem an ideal match for the beautiful Eustacia who yearns to travel...Forming something of a 'Greek chorus' are the local people, with their amusing conversations, folk customs and superstitions. And the omnipresent 'reddleman', Diggory Venn; a seller of sheep dye, and former (unsuccessful) suitor to Thomasin Yeobright, he seems to be always prowling about the heath looking out for his loved one.At times a little over the top in emotion, this comes to an extremely good and touching ending.

[wagner5sarah35 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Good, but not amazing. I almost couldn't believe the number of misunderstandings and accidents in this novel, to the point that I found it nearly implausible. From the problems with a marriage license at the beginning to Clym losing eyesight due to reading too much by candlelight (I'd be blind by now if this was even remotely possible) to the whole sequence of unanswered knocks on doors and letters not received. I guess I'm just not a Thomas Hardy fan.

[santhony_35 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

For Christmas, I ordered an mp3 player (Library of Classics) that was pre-loaded with 100 works of classic literature in an audio format. Each work is in the public domain and is read by amateurs, so the quality of the presentation is hit or miss. The Return of the Native is a novel written by Thomas Hardy that has as its locale 19th century rural England. The story line of the novel revolves around the romantic attachments of several inhabitants of Egdon Heath, essentially a love pentagon (as opposed to the classic love triangle). There is Diggory Venn, the reddelman, who loves Thomasin. Wildeve, who marries Thomasin, but loves Eustacia, who marries Clym Yeobright, Thomasin’s cousin. You get the picture.The story is a little slow to get started, as Hardy never uses a dozen words when a hundred can be strung together. His prose is overly descriptive and verbose. Finally, we are introduced to all of the major characters and a period of enjoyment commences as the makings of a fine tale emerge. Alas, the story grinds to a halt as long periods of inaction and repetitious behavior develop. I’m sure the style is not unusual for the period, though I’ve read a lot of Dickens and found his writing to be far livelier.In listening to the audiobook, I would have sworn that the book had to contain 800 pages, but the Amazon profile reports only half that. Perhaps it only seemed like 800 pages, given the long periods of sleep inducing inaction and florid prose. In any event, it was not terrible, just not exactly to my liking.

[jvioland_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This novel haunts me with its characters and settings. Excellent in every way.

[lisa.johnson.james · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This was my second book by Hardy. Like the first one I read, this is a book about moral dilemmas & the power of misperceptions. Eustacia & Thomasin are tragic heroines who suffer the consequences of rumor & reputation is small town 1800's England. Clym, the one is is the returning native of the title, is a man who fortune treated well in the beginning, but struck down at the end. Wildeve is the romantic hero who is the cause of much of the 2 ladies' problems....It's sad most of the way, with a few clever places throughout, like Eustacia's attempt at disguising herself as a man in the mummer's play so that she could meet Clym to begin with. That evening's work she didn't quite think all the way through, & finds herself in a rather touchy situation :)All in all, I was ok with how the book ended, although the afterword gives us an idea of how the original ending went vice the one that the book gives....

[helenliz_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

It took 25 plus years, but after being totally put of Hardy at school, I finally tried again. And it was nothing like as bad as I thought it was going to be. This is the story of two couples who have married and both, for various reasons, are unsuited. The characters are supported by a mass of well drawn characters, pone of which is the landscape itself. The whole of the first chapter is devoted to describing Egdon Heath and it takes on a presence that is more than mere backdrop. There are contrasting opinions on it as well, with Eustacia wanting to get away and Clem feeling he has returned home. It certainly isn't a feel good book, it has an air of melancholy about it, there's a lot of repenting at leisure and the whole tone is nostalgic for a time and tradition that probably never existed. Even the ending seems not to focus on the hope of a marriage (this one seems much more sound) but on the disappointment and lack of emotion of Clem. It was certainly a lot better than my last experience with him, but he's not exactly a cheery bunny. His landscape is excellent, I'm just not sure I bought into his characters entirely, the marriages struck me as a little too far fetched. It may well be less than 25 years before I pick up another.

[stuart10er_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Is Hardy for marriage or against marriage? Having read a few of his works, I think that perhaps he ultimately comes down on the side that marriage is a bad idea. This one, however, leaves you thinking that perhaps under the right conditions, if both parties come to the marriage from a place of grief and don't expect too much then maybe it can work. A young man returns to his village when his cousin's marriage is temporarily disrupted but all sorts of mayhem ensues. It is difficult to give any details of the plot without giving the whole thing away as not many events happen in the book, but it is full of character (both human and of nature) and mood. I really enjoyed it. Definately depressing - but not nearly as much so as Jude, which made me depressed for days.