THE RETURN OF THE NATIVE by Thomas Hardy

NOVEL (CLASSIC)

The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy (New York: Signet Classics, 1999). First published in installments in the magazine, Belgravia, in 1878.

Narrated by Patrick Tull (Recorded Books, 2002).

Reviewed by Wilda Morris

Regretting that I did not take any literature courses in college, I decided a couple of years ago to attempt to remedy that mistake. From time to time, I either read a classic novel, or listen to a recording of one. Recently, I selected the Recorded Books edition of The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy.

In this novel, set at Egdon Heath, Hardy engages many issues, including desire (and failure) to escape the impact of social conventions; illicit relationships; social class; failure to learn from experience; the danger of acting on false assumptions; good intentions leading to negative consequences; guilt; damage done by an over-controlling parent; the high cost of waiting too long to seek reconciliation; and the perils of falling in love with false expectations of the other, rather than with the real person.

The story circles primarily around four young adults. They are:

*          The fickle Damon Wildeve;

*          Clym Yoebright who returns from Paris planning to settle down in his native area and start a school, so as to improve the lives of its people;

*          Thomasin Yeobright, a gentle and conventional woman; a cousin of Clym, who was raised by Clym’s mother (who would like to see Thomasin and Clem marry); and

*          Eustacia Vye, a beautiful and somewhat exotic young woman who is living with her grandfather; she hates the heath. Some of her neighbors believe she is a witch.

As a love story, The Return of the Native is complex, involving two very different kinds of women, and three very different men. Eustacia comments (page 200), that “many a man’s love has become a curse to him.” In the plots and subplots of this dark book, romantic love and attempts to find life partners seem to curse both the men and women. The games the young people play to attract mates, as well as the well-intentioned but sometimes ill-conceived interventions of the “supporting cast” (Diggeoy Venn, the reddleman and Mrs. Yoebright, in particular), leads to two mismatches and various levels of disaster to most of the characters.

I recommend this forerunner to the modern psychological novel.

© 2011.

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