The Return of the Native (Modern Library Classics)

Rating:
Summary: Restless on the Heath
Review: Hardy's timeless classic about a romantic pentagon is set on England's Egdon Heath in the mid 19th century. Those raised on the heath view it comfortably as homespun landscape, but newcomers consider it desolate, bleak and even hostile. For this heath with its mysterious rainbarrow is a curious juxtaposition of ancient ways and relics with more "modern" lifestyle. Romance blooms and fades, then erupts in relentless waves--resulting in inevitable tragedy.

The tenuous emotional stasis of two men and two women is thrown out of balance by the arrival home of its native son, Clym Yeobright. Returning after several successful years in the diamond business in Paris this philanthropic young man cherishes a dream of opening a school for the folks in the port of Budmouth or even locally for the common heath dwellers.

But other strong-willed and tender-hearted young residents of the Heath have their own private agendas: Wildeve, engineer reduced to innkeeper, is fatally attracted to Eustacia Vye; Diggory Venn, the quietly observant reddleman, harbors hopeless devotion to Thomasin Yeobright. Lastly there shines the dark-haired wild beauty, Eustacia, who longs to depart the Heath for cosmopolitan world centers where she will be appreciated and sought after. Meanwhile Clym's mother secretly hopes for an alliance between the cousins. Clym's homecoming proves the catalyst which ignites deeply emotional events, maternal anguish, and spousal grief. Would it have been better for all the main characters if he had remained longer abroad, instead of providing fodder for local gossip?

Despite the apparent disparity in the external circumstances of Hardy's characters and modern readers, we are gradully drawn in by his deft maneuvering of the simple, direct plotline. Helplessly we are ensnared into the complex interactions of his main characters. Sometimes indifferent, sometimes reflecting the moods of humankind, Nature provides an everpresent back drop for the mummers of life to perform their eternal roles of misguided love. One of my all-time favorite novels, this classic will haunt readers because of the stark honesty of its passion. Like the heath moths drawn irresistably to Eustacia's flame, the characters must act out their pretermined roles, while casual humanity (Greek chorus-like) can but look on with awe, as they--like us--contemplate the mysterious forces of the human heart.


Rating:
Summary: Black chaos comes.
Review: "Gloomy fatalism" influenced by Schopenhauer is how critics described this novel when it was first published. Thomas Hardy's (1840-1928) sixth novel is about doomed love and chance, and when it is measured against his masterpieces, TESS OF THE D'URBERVILLES (1891) and JUDE THE OBSCURE (1895), THE RETURN OF THE NATIVE (1878) succeeds as one of the Victorian novelist's most powerful works. It tells the story of an idealistic and intellectual young man, Clym Yeobright, who abandons the ambitious goals set for him by his strong-minded mother, after becoming infatuated with a free-spirited, sensuous woman, Eustacia Vye, in a wild and lonely place. The plot unfolds on Hardy's "partly real and partly dream country," Egdon Heath, a dark Wessex moor associated with tragic possibilities. As Alexander Theroux observes in his Introduction to this edition of Hardy's novel, Hardy was committed to the deep expression of nature's ironic chaos and strange apathy, even hostility toward man (p. x), and in this respect, Egdon Heath could be described as a major protagonist in the novel. It has been said that Hardy viewed life as something to put up with.

When Clym Yeobright (the "native") returns to Egdon Heath from his studies in Paris, he decides to reject his chosen profession and marry Eustacia Vye instead. Eustacia is a darkly complicated young woman (and one of Hardy's most fascinating characters), who hopes to escape her dreary existence on the Heath for a more cosmopolitan life in Paris. (In a heart-wrenching subplot, Clym's passion for Eustacia leads to his estrangement from his mother, Mrs. Yeobright, who disapproves of the union.) Prior to Clym's return, Eustacia loved Damon Wildeve; that is, until he proposed marriage to Clym's cousin, Thomasin Yeobright. To further complicate things, Diggory Venn, a reddleman, secretly admires Thomasin. For his self-destructive characters, the course of love is never happy in in Hardy's cruel universe. "Black chaos comes," he writes, "and the fettered gods of the earth say, Let there be light" (p. 15).

Reading Victorian fiction does not get any better than reading Thomas Hardy. Returning to Hardy's brooding, melancholy novels after first reading them more than twenty five years ago, I am re-discovering Hardy's brilliant ability to convey familiar, primordial truths through his fiction, making him worth reading again and again.

G. Merritt



Rating:
Summary: Read it again!
Review: I didn't pay attention to much in high school but this book, and the tools by which to grasp it, has stayed with me through a lifetime. The heath and the people who were more of it than of the world, has remained vivid and powerfully romantic to keep me coming back to Hardy and other English authors of the 19th and early 20th centuries. The result has been part of the greatest joys in a life of reading.

Eustacia Vye is a magnificent heroine, and her power, ardor and ultimate destiny as perhaps in excess of the more common neighbors is intense and pagan and unforgettable. The heath is a pre-christian place, remote not only from civilization but from all that is ordinary. In a small country, with massive social rules, the heath is alive and in posession of a soul. They keep the ancient traditions of festivals and bonfires, the people even speak their own language. The book has enhanced battles with the elements that seem to be offended and punishing ill-fated love. No one who reads this book will forget the red man, seeming to be a favorite of those pagan gods.
This is a romance that is eternal. Read it again, or read it with an inner openness and it will repay your time and soul.

Rating:
Summary: The narrative genius of Hardy
Review: There are two and a half sets of lovers in Thomas Hardy's "The Return of the Native," which, if your math is correct and your idea of the number of lovers in a set concurs with mine, makes five people. Romance, deceit, misunderstanding, and misfortune affect their destinies, and those to whom the novel is cruelest come to tragic ends because they refuse to forgive themselves or others for mistakes.

The central tragic figure is Eustacia Vye, a young woman who has come to live on Egdon Heath with her cantankerous grandfather. Despising the dreariness of the heath and generally secluding herself from the local populace, she is somewhat of an outsider and not well liked by some in the community. She was in love with Damon Wildeve, a former engineer who now owns an inn and is not too happy about it; but their affair has since cooled and Wildeve has turned his attention to a girl named Thomasin Yeobright. Wildeve and Thomasin's wedding is aborted when the marriage license turns out to be invalid, and Thomasin, running home to her aunt in shame and anger, is caught on the rebound by Diggory Venn, her long-time admirer. A word about Venn's profession is in order: He is a "reddleman," who, not unlike the ice cream man in the summertime, rides around the heath in a van selling a strange product that shades its vendor most memorably.

Completing the quintet is Thomasin's cousin Clym Yeobright, an Egdon Heath native who is returning permanently after living for some time in Paris as a diamond merchant. Destiny eventually unites Clym and Eustacia in love, but Clym's mother does not approve of the union; she doesn't like Eustacia, and she fears their being married would prevent or discourage Clym from returning to his lucrative career in Paris. They get married anyway, as do Wildeve and Thomasin on a second try, leaving Venn as the fifth wheel but still not out of the running.

The catalyst for the tragedy of the novel involves an attempted reconciliation between Clym's mother and Eustacia, which results in the kind of ugly situation that could be cleared up by simple explanations and apologies but instead is exacerbated by normal circumstances. On top of this, Wildeve realizes he still loves Eustacia and is willing to help her in any course of action, no matter how lacking in judgment, that she thinks is an appropriate response to her plight.

This novel swells with Hardy's typical narrative genius, but no less impressive than the plot, the characters, the dialogue, and the prose, is the barren but hauntingly beautiful setting of Egdon Heath. Like the famous Casterbridge of his later novel, it is a world unto itself, defined by its own peculiar topography and populated by denizens who, with their own special jargon, customs, and folklore, act as a sort of Greek chorus towards the drama of the principal characters, commenting on events with humor and gravity. The heathmen and women don't much mind the hardships of life; they're the kind of people that will joyfully dance around their bonfires on the barrows even without musical accompaniment.

Rating:
Summary: Black chaos comes.
Review: Thomas Hardy's (1840-1928) sixth novel is about doomed love and chance, and when it is measured against his masterpieces, TESS OF THE D'URBERVILLES (1878) and JUDE THE OBSCURE (1895), THE RETURN OF THE NATIVE (1878) succeeds as one of the Victorian novelist's most powerful works. The plot unfolds on Hardy's fictitious, wild Egdon Heath, a dark Wessex moor associated with tragic possibilities. As Alexander Theroux observes in his Introduction to this edition of Hardy's novel, Hardy was committed to the deep expression of nature's ironic chaos and strange apathy, even hostility toward man (p. x), and in this respect, Egdon Heath could be described as a major protagonist in the novel.

THE RETURN OF THE NATIVE tells the tragic tale of Clym Yeobright (the "native"), who returns to Egdon Heath from his studies in Paris, and his troubled relationship with Eustacia Vye, a darkly complicated young woman (and one of Hardy's most fascinating characters) hoping to escape her dreary existence on the Heath for a more cosmopolitan life in Paris. (In a heart-wrenching subplot, Clym's passion for Eustacia leads to his estrangement from his mother, Mrs. Yeobright, who disapproves of the union.) Prior to Clym's return, Eustacia loved Damon Wildeve; that is, until he proposed marriage to Clym's cousin, Thomasin Yeobright. To further complicate things, Diggory Venn, a reddleman, secretly admires Thomasin. For his self-destructive characters, the course of love is never happy in in Hardy's cruel universe. "Black chaos comes," he writes, "and the fettered gods of the earth say, Let there be light" (p. 15).

Reading Victorian fiction does not get any better than reading Thomas Hardy. Returning to Hardy's brooding, melancholy novels after first reading them more than twenty five years ago, I am re-discovering Hardy's brilliant ability to convey familiar, primordial truths through his fiction, making him worth reading again and again.

G. Merritt