The Return of the Native
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Author Description
'To be loved to madness - such was her great desire'Eustacia Vye criss-crosses the wild Egdon Heath, eager to experience life to the full in her quest for 'music, poetry, passion, war'. She marries Clym Yeobright, native of the heath, but his idealism frustrates her romantic ambitions and her discontent draws others into a tangled web of deceit and unhappiness.Early readers responded to Hardy's 'insatiably observant' descriptions of the heath, a setting that for D. H. Lawrence provided the 'real stuff of tragedy'. For modern readers, the tension between the mythic setting of the heath and the modernity of the characters challenges our freedom to shape the world as we wish; like Eustacia, we may not always be able to live our dreams.This edition has a critically established text based on the manuscript and first edition, and without the later changes that substantially altered Hardy's original intentions.About the Series: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the broadest spectrum of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, voluminous notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.
Menrva's Summary
THE PULSE
Eustacia Vye’s desperate longing for passion and escape from the desolate Egdon Heath sets in motion a series of tragic misalignments between desire and reality. The protagonist seeks to transcend her provincial surroundings through marriage to Clym Yeobright, a man whose intellectual idealism clashes sharply with her own romantic volatility. As their expectations diverge, the narrative explores the suffocating influence of the landscape on human ambition and the inevitable friction between individual will and social circumstance. The story unfolds through a third-person omniscient perspective that emphasizes the indifference of nature toward the characters' personal crises.
INSIDE THE PAGES
- The Egdon Heath functions as a central, sentient-like character that dictates the rhythm of the plot.
- Themes of fatalism and the limitations of human agency are woven into the character arcs.
- The narrative employs a slow, atmospheric pacing that mirrors the vast, unchanging landscape.
- Complex social dynamics within the rural community create constant pressure on the protagonists.
- Symbolism is heavily utilized to represent the conflict between modernity and tradition.
- The prose features dense, descriptive passages that emphasize the sensory details of the environment.
- Character motivations are driven by internal discontent rather than external action alone.
- The structure builds toward a climactic resolution that highlights the irony of the characters' choices.
THE COLLECTIVE ECHO
Readers and critics frequently highlight the atmospheric power of the setting, noting how the heath serves as a catalyst for the characters' psychological unraveling. Discussion often centers on the stark contrast between Eustacia’s romantic idealism and the grounded, often frustrating, pragmatism of the other inhabitants. Many observers point to the tragedy as a meditation on the futility of attempting to escape one's origins or social station. The balance between the expansive, mythic descriptions of the environment and the intimate, often claustrophobic, character interactions remains a primary focus for those analyzing the work's enduring impact.
Page Count:
488
Publication Date:
2009-07-26
Publisher:
Oxford University Press
ISBN-10:
0199537046
ISBN-13:
9780199537044
Romance
Literary Fiction
Victorian
Tragedy
England
Wessex England
classic
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