5.0 out of 5 stars Great system for footnotes and biographical info.

D.S. · November 23, 2024

(function() { P.when('cr-A', 'ready').execute(function(A) { if(typeof A.toggleExpanderAriaLabel === 'function') { A.toggleExpanderAriaLabel('review_text_read_more', 'Read more of this review', 'Read less of this review'); } }); })(); .review-text-read-more-expander:focus-visible { outline: 2px solid #2162a1; outline-offset: 2px; border-radius: 5px; } Great analysis of book if read after finishing novel.

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautifully written, classic Hardy

K.B. · January 10, 2015

I love Thomas Hardy, and this novel is no exception. Beautifully written, classic Hardy.

4.0 out of 5 stars Poetry in prose

m.c. · August 15, 2013

Here's how Hardy conveys this thought:She saw the dying fire as she entered in the early evening.To convey that sentence he writes on p.52:"the red coals of the perishing fire greeted her like living eyes in the corpse of day"

5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars

S.N. · December 30, 2014

Beautiful!

5.0 out of 5 stars A Year and a Day on Egdon Heath

S.R. · September 27, 2011

There was a time, before iPods, Walkmans, TV, radio, record players, in which workers (usually women) that were assigned to long hours of menial labor would assign one amongst them to read a book to the rest. The Return of the Native, Thomas Hardy's sixth novel, would be a terrific choice for such a reading group. Few in the 21st century have the leisure, or the inclination, to delve into a tale in which many pages might be given to the description of a natural scene, or to the intricate development of the personalities of the main characters of this book. But if there were a modern reader that either had, or made, time to read this book at the deliberate and careful pace that is required to experience its depth and richness, that reader would be richly rewarded. As was I.Thomas Hardy, better known for Tess of the D'Urbervilles, was one of the most influential of the English authors of the 1800's. Both D.H. Lawrence and Virginia Woolf pay him homage and cite him as a source of their inspiration. His stories can be explored on two levels, both levels very accessible to the moderately experienced reader, neither level involving a journey into the deep complexities of books such as Pinchon's Gravity's Rainbow or James Joyce's Ulysses.The first level of The Return of the Native: it's simply a wonderful tale. For the price of a tiny bit of patience, as Hardy's narrative begins to unfold the reader receives a rich story involving integrity, duplicity, humor, passion, selfishness and selflessness, nobility and narcissism, as well as the consequences of impetuous action and the rewards of patient persistence. As a well told story it stands on its own and stands proudly, with or without the embellishment of scholarly opinion or critical review.The second level: Hardy infuses the story with his philosophy of the relationship between nature and mankind, his criticisms of the tragic consequences of societally ordained values (Victorian values colliding with human desires and capabilities), and beautiful symbolism. For those who feel that plots are not the core of a novel but merely scaffoldings upon which to hang literary/philosophical schools of thought and layers of symbolism, The Return of the Native serves well as a cerebral playground.Taken at the first level, The Return of the Native is an absorbing tale complete with unpredictable twists of plot, human souls whose fates are determined by letters that arrive moments too late, and bouts of comic relief.At the second level, The Return of the Native is rich in philosophy, anthropology, even theology.Take both levels together, and you have what is deservedly called a classic. The word classic makes many cringe. No need to recoil from The Return of the Native: this story is fascinating and rewarding for any who are patient enough to let its rich flavors and constructions emerge at a pace reflective of an era gone by.

2.0 out of 5 stars Boring book. Easier to listen to.

R. · April 18, 2017

If you have to read this for school like I did, do yourself a favor and listen to it on Audible.The writing style is much easier to listen to than to read. Plus you can listen while you drive or play video games. :)

5.0 out of 5 stars Vintage book

K. · February 17, 2022

Of course, Hardy is Hardy. No need to comment on him. The vintage book was in good shape to be that old. I’m happy- I love old books by my favorite authors.

Beautiful Bleakness

G.S.B. · May 22, 2010

(function() { P.when('cr-A', 'ready').execute(function(A) { if(typeof A.toggleExpanderAriaLabel === 'function') { A.toggleExpanderAriaLabel('review_text_read_more', 'Read more of this review', 'Read less of this review'); } }); })(); .review-text-read-more-expander:focus-visible { outline: 2px solid #2162a1; outline-offset: 2px; border-radius: 5px; } There is something truly epic about Hardy's The Return of the Native, something very akin to Greek tragedy. Noble and well-meaning actions invariably result, though connections not being made and wrong conclusions being reached, in misery and suffering. All of the characters are touched with true humanity, no one is entirely good or entirely bad, they are all painted with very human loves and passions, they are all touched with some nobility of thought, and yet they are all deeply flawed; even the very landscape itself, the bleak but strangely beautiful Egdon Heath, casts a visible shadow across the lives and behaviour of all who live there.The story centres around Eustacia Vye, a raven-haired and devestatingly beautiful outsider who suddenly, and miserably, finds herself resigned to a life on the heath. Eustacia is one of Victorian fiction's great creations - perhaps the most beautiful depiction of a 'high-maintenance' temptress ever put down on paper. The women on the heath either avoid her or else accuse her of being a witch, while the men regard her as a very bright light into which, moth-like, they can merrily fly to their doom. Initially drawn to the intelligent but rather unambitious Wildeve she soon discards him when Clym Yeobright - the native of the title - returns to the heath having spent the previous years in that centre of pomp and vanity, Paris. Hearts are broken, tears are shed, the best of intentions lead to the worst of outcomes and tragedy ensues. It's bleak stuff but such was Hardy's gift for description (the way the landscape is described, with its birds and snakes, its insects and animals and the relentless passage of the seasons is exquisitely beautiful), and such was his gift for narrative (the way the story moves from character to character is a masterclass in how to piece together a tale without resorting to any clunky authorial intrusion) that the story is an absolute pleasure to read.Many scenes linger in the mind: Eustacia standing by the bonfire on November 5th; the play in which Eustacia takes the role of the Turkish Knight; Mrs Yeobright trudging towards her doom on the sun-blasted heath, watching a heron take to the skies like a departing soul; Diggory Venn, covered in red dye, playing dice by the light of glow-worms with Wildeve; an effigy of Eustacia made from wax being cast into the embers of a fire. It's all stunningly visual, moving, passionate and, above all else, so very beautifully described. You can make a case for any one of a half-dozen Hardy novels being the great man's best but, personally, if I could only take one of his books to a desert island then, well, difficult choice though it would be, this is the one I would take.

Urtümlich, ländlicher - historischer Roman

M. · February 14, 2023

Ich möchte an dieser Stelle gern kurz den Inhalt (ohne natürlich zu viel zu verraten) wiedergeben, um potentiellen Lesern eine kurze und hoffentlich hilfreiche Orientierung zu geben. :So spielt der Roman in einer englischen Heidelandschaft, die der Leser natürlich ausführlich beschrieben bekommt. Der Roman dreht sich nun um das Leben der dortigen Menschen. Es geht um Liebe, Familienbande, enttäuschte Hoffnungen und tot.Der Roman hat mir recht gut gefallen, obgleich er einige Längen enthält. Man bekomnt eben neben der Handlung, auch viel über das Leben der einfachen Menschen dieser Zeit vermittelt.Für Nicht-Muttersprachler, die aber einigermaßen fit im Englischen sind, ist der Roman gut verständlich (durchschnittliches Schulenglisch reicht aber meines Erachtens nicht aus).Fazit: typischer Hardy Roman, der sich gut liest, aber auch einige Längen enthält. Für mich aber 4 Sterne.Vielen Dank für das Lesen meiner Rezension. Ich hoffe, sie ist hilfreich. :)

A novel that I always wanted to read

T.G. · December 26, 2017

Well, I finally finished it. Maybe better, I finally got beyond the first couple of chapters and read it through to the end. This was an assigned text in one of my high school English course. I think it was my Grade 12 class with Mr. Lloyd in the 1963-64 school year. I would have been 15 turning 16 is that class. I have absolutely no recollection of how the novel was taught beyond my inability to get through it as a 15-year-old. 54 years later, I just recently turned 79 and the novel has much more relevance to me now at the end of my life than then at the beginning.This novel is the only Hardy that I have read but the Internet speaks of a fatalism in it. I was puzzled when I read that as I was reading the novel but realized it is an apt description of the novel. It is not fatalistic in that people's lives are foredoomed but fatalistic in that people's lives make little difference. The heath was there before them and the heath will be there after they have gone. Eustachia and Windeve die and then their lives are taken up, interpreted and indeed molded as stories by the heath people. The barrow people. the Celtic tribes, the Romans ... lived on and left their traces on the heath. The current residents of the heath are not a culmination of history but just part of the process of the heath that carries on forever in terms of human lives. In this I see hardy as anticipating some of the concepts of postmodernism as I understand them.As a 70 year old, this novel has greater resonance for me than as a 15 year old in grade 12. maybe that is why I cannot recall any of the teaching of it so long ago. However, I remembered this novel and thought of it for all of those 54 intervening years. The teaching of it must have influenced me profoundly. it is a novel that I always wanted to read. I've read it now and I am glad that I did. It is a novel of depth that teaches a lot about life.

Hardy's favourite, and I can see why

R. · December 31, 2014

Hardy's favourite, and I can see why. Egdon Heath is almost like a character, and lives on in the imagination long after the details of the plot fade from memory. For those who value a sense of place, it is a must-read.

Very good

S.M.H. · May 11, 2014

This is a very useful early edition of the novel, which includes a map which is more specific than the Wessex map included in later editions.