The Return of the Native

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Summary: Return of the Native...a Great Book For All Ages!
Review: Hardy's talent soars in this novel, as he creates an atmosphere of love, death and life on Egdon Heath. Hardy's characters come to life on the pages, and they carry incredible amounts of emotion, passion and romance in their words. My favorite character, Eustacia Vye is an romantic, evil, and twisted woman who is out to get only what she thinks she deserves. She'll ruin everything in her path to get the man and the wealth that she wants. My least favorite character, Thomasin Yeobright, is a meek and "perfect" character who is so naive that she finds herself in irreversible situations. Other characters that intermingle in the story include Diggory Venn, Clym Yeobright, and my favorite male character, Damon Wileve. All five aforementioned people change and mold eachother into adults as they love, help, hurt and harm eachother. A trail of destined events leads to the explosive ending, and allows the novel to come to an incredible close, where no character is left untouched. Return of the Native is now one of my favorite books! If you like romance, drama, and fantasy, then this book could be perfect for you. It starts off a little slow, but before too long, Hardy will have you enveloped in the lives of his characters, and you won't be able to put it down!

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Summary: This is a must read for those who love love
Review: Mr Hardy's writing has a density and quality and power which draws one in to the Wessex world with an uncanny and memorable effectiveness. His writing also has a truth about it because of his deep knowledge and love of the land in the South West of England and the working habits and practices of those who lived on and from it. This is a brilliant novel of love and human envy set on Egdon Heath with such memorable characters as The Reddleman who is somewhat like an avenging angel. Rivetting and powerful writing of the highest order, with a gripping plot and a satisfying resolution.

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Summary: A Startling Perspective of Human Relationships
Review: Young readers with short attention spans should shy away from this novel. It is a story of a love triangle set in the heaths of 19th century England. Each character has a well-developed psyche which comes out in their actions. Hardy shows the motivations that bring out the evil-appearing actions that humans do. The heath is a wonderful figure of this. Boring, ugly, and unsatisfying at times, and beautiful and artsy at others. The end, though really not a surprise comes suddenly. Younger readers should keep a dictionary at their sides while reading this. Even if one does not quite get what is happening, the language it is written in is very poetic.

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Summary: The definitive review
Review: Actually this book was better than I expected, its quite good in places especially the ending (where they all die) sorry but it was for your own good now nobody needs to actually read it! Back to the point its unusual for me to give a book a good review so you had better make the most of it! In short its alright! The highlight is the bright red man lurking throughout the novel.

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Summary: Ponderous and epherial story of life on the heath.
Review: This novel is very long and very tedious in it's detail and desciption of events. Not for the casual reader.

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Summary: RETURN OF THE MASTER
Review: What struck me on reading this book was his modern understanding of the motivations that determine the relations between men and women. Of course, the setting is crucial in any Hardy novel. Mankind's trivial concerns in this unchanging and unforgiving landscape. What is interesting is the dialogue between Wildeve (great name for a lover of nightlife) and Eustacia. The weakness and inconstancy in his character rather than evil and the troubled beauty and vanity of Eustacia's combined for predictable longing, rejection, and ultimately tragedy. He's the only game in town for this bored beauty, and when Clym pops up with his Parisian past, Wildeve was history for the moment. When Eustacia no longer showed interest, he was dying for her. Loved the reddleman who was always Johhny on the spot. The whole gambling sequence and the interplay with Wildeve and the hapless fool that lost Mom's money and then Reddleman's great comeback was wonderful. Hardy claimed that Clym was the center of the novel, but obviously the dullest thing in it. Only the Reddleman shines and in the end comes clean.

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Summary: Hardy's Schopenhauerism
Review: Reading Schopenhauer alongside Hardy's "Return of the Native", one cannot help but notice the philosphical similarities. The unhapiest people in Hardy's novel are those who rebel against their natural (and social) environments, while those who take each day at a time and want for nothing are vindicated at the end. Schopenhauer's pessisimism - and Eastern influences - shine strongly through Hardy's deeply moving parable of nature's revenge against those who would rise up against it.

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Summary: zzzzzzzz
Review: This is defintly not my idea of a page-turning book and I hope it isn't your either. My 9th grade teacher had our class read this over the summer. If you're assigned to this book, please!! Oh please try and get out of the assignment. This book is no fun and my best suggestion is to skip the 1 1/2 chapter and you should be better off. All it really talks about is the heath and that is n't really important. Good luck to you all and may god be with you.

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Summary: If you're bored, you're boring.
Review: As I look over the reviews of the classic works of literature, I am appalled by how often I see the word boring being used. I guess it's because great books don't come with big screens, speakers and a joy stick. Welcome to the Millenium.

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Summary: A deep, rich novel despite a sour ending.
Review: Return of the Native is a novel filled with romantic elements and rolling, beautiful language, however long-winded Hardy is in describing the moors. The ending is far too sudden and unrealistic, however, because the entire novel comprises of romantic disappointment. To have such a suddenly optimistic ending can't help but make the novel lose some of its real depth.