Skip to Main Content (Press Enter)

The Return of the Native

Introduction by John Bayley

By Thomas Hardy
Introduction by Alexander Theroux

By Thomas Hardy
Introduction by Alexander Theroux

By Thomas Hardy

By Thomas Hardy

By Thomas Hardy
Introduction by John Bayley

By Thomas Hardy
Introduction by John Bayley

By Thomas Hardy

By Thomas Hardy

By Thomas Hardy

By Thomas Hardy

By Thomas Hardy
Read by Jill Masters

By Thomas Hardy
Read by Jill Masters

Best Seller

Part of Modern Library Classics

Part of Everyman's Library Classics Series

Paperback $10.00

Feb 13, 2001 | ISBN 9780375757181

Mass Market Paperback $6.00

Feb 01, 1982 | ISBN 9780553212693

Hardcover $25.00

Nov 03, 1992 | ISBN 9780679417309

Ebook $5.99

Aug 26, 2008 | ISBN 9780553905564

Ebook $2.99

Nov 01, 2000 | ISBN 9780679641520

Audiobook Download $25.00

Jan 01, 1983 | 990 Minutes

All Formats
+
    The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy
    Paperback $10.00
    Feb 13, 2001 | ISBN 9780375757181

    Buy from Other Retailers:

    See All Formats (5) +

    Paperback (2)
    –

    • Paperback $10.00

      Feb 13, 2001 | ISBN 9780375757181

      Buy from Other Retailers:

    • Mass Market Paperback $6.00

      Feb 01, 1982 | ISBN 9780553212693

      Buy from Other Retailers:

    Hardcover
    +

    • Hardcover $25.00

      Nov 03, 1992 | ISBN 9780679417309

      Buy from Other Retailers:

    Ebook (2)
    +

    • Ebook

      Aug 26, 2008 | ISBN 9780553905564

      Buy from Other Retailers:

    • Ebook

      Nov 01, 2000 | ISBN 9780679641520

      Buy from Other Retailers:

    Audio
    +

    Buy the Audiobook Download:

    About The Return of the Native

    One of Thomas Hardy’s most powerful works, The Return of the Native centers famously on Egdon Heath, the wild, haunted Wessex moor that D. H. Lawrence called "the real stuff of tragedy." The heath’s changing face mirrors the fortunes of the farmers, inn-keepers, sons, mothers, and lovers who populate the novel. The "native" is Clym Yeobright, who comes home from a cosmopolitan life in Paris. He; his cousin Thomasin; her fiancé, Damon Wildeve; and the willful Eustacia Vye are the protagonists in a tale of doomed love, passion, alienation, and melancholy as Hardy brilliantly explores that theme so familiar throughout his fiction: the diabolical role of chance in determining the course of a life.

    As Alexander Theroux asserts in his Introduction, Hardy was "committed to the deep expression of [nature’s] ironic chaos and strange apathy, even hostility, toward man."

    About The Return of the Native

    This fine novel sets in opposition two of Thomas Hardy’s most unforgettable creations: his heroine, the sensuous, free-spirited Eustacia Vye, and the solemn, majestic stretch of upland in Dorsetshire he called Egdon Heath. The famous opening reveals the haunting power of that dark, forbidding moor where proud Eustacia fervently awaits a clandestine meeting with her lover, Damon Wildeve. But Eustacia’s dreams of escape are not to be realized—neither Wildeve nor the returning native Clym Yeobright can bring her salvation.

    Injured by forces beyond their control, Hardy’s characters struggle vainly in the net of destiny. In the end, only the face of the lonely heath remains untouched by fate in this masterpiece of tragic passion, a tale that perfectly epitomizes the author’s own unique and melancholy genius.

    About The Return of the Native

    Eustacia Vye longs to escape from Egdon Heath, but the man she chooses to save her longs to stay. Out of their struggle, the unfulfilled passion of his heroine, and the daily rhythms of late-nineteenth-century rural life, Hardy builds a drama fully worthy of the magnificent stage on which he places it.

    The Return of the Native is dominated by the brooding presence of Egdon Heath, located in Thomas Hardy’s imaginary Wessex, and in no other book did Hardy’s extraordinary feeling for landscape blend so perfectly with his austere, stoic vision of human fate.

    Once more he treats his favorite theme of the mismatched couple with masterly pathos and understatement.

    About The Return of the Native

    This fine novel sets in opposition two of Thomas Hardy’s most unforgettable creations: his heroine, the sensuous, free-spirited Eustacia Vye, and the solemn, majestic stretch of upland in Dorsetshire he called Egdon Heath. The famous opening reveals the haunting power of that dark, forbidding moor where proud Eustacia fervently awaits a clandestine meeting with her lover, Damon Wildeve. But Eustacia’s dreams of escape are not to be realized—neither Wildeve nor the returning native Clym Yeobright can bring her salvation.

    Injured by forces beyond their control, Hardy’s characters struggle vainly in the net of destiny. In the end, only the face of the lonely heath remains untouched by fate in this masterpiece of tragic passion, a tale that perfectly epitomizes the author’s own unique and melancholy genius.

    About The Return of the Native

    The Return of the Native combines all of the great themes of Thomas Hardy’s works. Wonderful descriptions of the English countryside underscore a rural tale of doomed love, passion, and melancholy. The novel opens with the famous portrait of Egdon Heath, the wild, haunted Wessex moor that D. H. Lawrence called ‘the real stuff of tragedy’ of the book. The heath’s changing face mirrors the fortunes of the farmers, innkeepers, sons, mothers, and lovers that populate the novel. The ‘native’ is Clym Yeobright, coming home from a successful, cosmopolitan life in Paris, a place far removed from the unforgiving landscape of Egdon Heath. He finds that his cousin, Thomasin, is about to marry Damon Wildeve, a rakish and confused man with a lover, Eustacia Vye, whom he cannot forget. Eustacia is willful, ambitious, and dangerously alluring. Hardy describes her as ‘the raw material of a divinity. . . . She had Pagan eyes, full of nocturnal mysteries.’ As the characters are drawn together, they scheme and maneuver, often under the eye of Diggory Venn, the reddleman whose relentless virtue must find its reward at the violent climax of the novel.

    The Return of the Native was first published in Belgravia magazine in twelve parts in 1878 and revised by Hardy in 1895 and in 1912, when he produced the definitive Wessex Edition of all of his novels. Described on publication by Harper’s magazine as ‘delightful reading,’ it has retained its power to move and absorb the reader and stands with The Mayor of Casterbridge and Jude the Obscure among the finest of Hardy’s works.

    About The Return of the Native

    This fine novel sets in opposition two of Thomas Hardy’s most unforgettable creations: his heroine, the sensuous, free-spirited Eustacia Vye, and the solemn, majestic stretch of upland in Dorsetshire he called Egdon Heath. The famous opening reveals the haunting power of that dark, forbidding moor where proud Eustacia fervently awaits a clandestine meeting with her lover, Damon Wildeve. But Eustacia’s dreams of escape are not to be realized—neither Wildeve nor the returning native Clym Yeobright can bring her salvation.

    Injured by forces beyond their control, Hardy’s characters struggle vainly in the net of destiny. In the end, only the face of the lonely heath remains untouched by fate in this masterpiece of tragic passion, a tale that perfectly epitomizes the author’s own unique and melancholy genius.

    Read An Excerpt

    Reading Guide

    Read An Excerpt

    Reading Guide

    Read An Excerpt

    Reading Guide

    Read An Excerpt

    Reading Guide

    Read An Excerpt

    Reading Guide

    Read An Excerpt

    Reading Guide

    Also in Everyman’s Library Classics Series

    The Best of Tagore
    Wuthering Heights

    Also by Thomas Hardy

    Jude the Obscure
    The Mayor of Casterbridge
    The Mayor of Casterbridge
    Far from the Madding Crowd
    Tess of the D'Urbervilles
    See all books by Thomas Hardy

    Also by Thomas Hardy

    Jude the Obscure
    The Mayor of Casterbridge
    The Mayor of Casterbridge
    Far from the Madding Crowd
    Tess of the D'Urbervilles
    See all books by Thomas Hardy

    Also by Thomas Hardy

    Jude the Obscure
    The Mayor of Casterbridge
    The Mayor of Casterbridge
    Far from the Madding Crowd
    Tess of the D'Urbervilles
    See all books by Thomas Hardy

    Also by Thomas Hardy

    Jude the Obscure
    The Mayor of Casterbridge
    The Mayor of Casterbridge
    Far from the Madding Crowd
    Tess of the D'Urbervilles
    See all books by Thomas Hardy

    Also by Thomas Hardy

    Jude the Obscure
    The Mayor of Casterbridge
    The Mayor of Casterbridge
    Far from the Madding Crowd
    Tess of the D'Urbervilles
    See all books by Thomas Hardy

    Also by Thomas Hardy

    Jude the Obscure
    The Mayor of Casterbridge
    The Mayor of Casterbridge
    Far from the Madding Crowd
    Tess of the D'Urbervilles
    See all books by Thomas Hardy

    About Thomas Hardy

    Thomas Hardy was born on June 2, 1840. In his writing, he immortalized the site of his birth—Egdon Heath, in Dorset, near Dorchester, England. Delicate as a child, he was taught at home by his mother before he attended grammar school…. More about Thomas Hardy

    About Thomas Hardy

    Thomas Hardy was born on June 2, 1840. In his writing, he immortalized the site of his birth—Egdon Heath, in Dorset, near Dorchester, England. Delicate as a child, he was taught at home by his mother before he attended grammar school…. More about Thomas Hardy

    About Thomas Hardy

    Thomas Hardy was born on June 2, 1840. In his writing, he immortalized the site of his birth—Egdon Heath, in Dorset, near Dorchester, England. Delicate as a child, he was taught at home by his mother before he attended grammar school…. More about Thomas Hardy

    About Thomas Hardy

    Thomas Hardy was born on June 2, 1840. In his writing, he immortalized the site of his birth—Egdon Heath, in Dorset, near Dorchester, England. Delicate as a child, he was taught at home by his mother before he attended grammar school…. More about Thomas Hardy

    About Thomas Hardy

    Thomas Hardy was born on June 2, 1840. In his writing, he immortalized the site of his birth—Egdon Heath, in Dorset, near Dorchester, England. Delicate as a child, he was taught at home by his mother before he attended grammar school…. More about Thomas Hardy

    About Thomas Hardy

    Thomas Hardy was born on June 2, 1840. In his writing, he immortalized the site of his birth—Egdon Heath, in Dorset, near Dorchester, England. Delicate as a child, he was taught at home by his mother before he attended grammar school…. More about Thomas Hardy

    Product Details

    Category: Fiction Classics | Romance | Historical Fiction

    Paperback | $10.00
    Published by Modern Library
    Feb 13, 2001 | 448 Pages | 5-3/16 x 8 | ISBN 9780375757181

    Category: Fiction Classics | Romance | Historical Fiction

    Mass Market Paperback | $6.00
    Published by Bantam Classics
    Feb 01, 1982 | 512 Pages | 4-3/16 x 6-7/8 | ISBN 9780553212693

    Category: Fiction Classics | Romance | Historical Fiction

    Hardcover | $25.00
    Published by Everyman’s Library
    Nov 03, 1992 | 552 Pages | ISBN 9780679417309

    Category: Fiction Classics | Romance | Historical Fiction

    Ebook | $5.99
    Published by Bantam Classics
    Aug 26, 2008 | 512 Pages | ISBN 9780553905564

    Category: Fiction Classics | Romance | Historical Fiction

    Ebook | $2.99
    Published by Modern Library
    Nov 01, 2000 | 448 Pages | ISBN 9780679641520

    Category: Romance | Historical Fiction | Audiobooks

    Audiobook Download | $25.00
    Published by Random House Audio
    Jan 01, 1983 | 990 Minutes | ISBN 9781415914786
    YOU MAY ALSO LIKE

    Praise

    "This is the quality Hardy shares with the great writers…this setting behind the small action the terrific action of unfathomed nature."
    –D. H. Lawrence

    Looking for More Great Reads?
    21 Books You’ve Been Meaning to Read
    Get the latest updates about Thomas Hardy
    And go from well-read to best read with book recs, deals and more in your inbox every week.
    And go from well-read to best read with book recs, deals and more in your inbox every week.
    By clicking “SIGN UP”, I acknowledge that I have read and agree to Penguin Random House’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Use and understand that Penguin Random House collects certain categories of personal information for the purposes listed in that policy, discloses, sells, or shares certain personal information and retains personal information in accordance with the policy. You can opt-out of the sale or sharing of personal information anytime.
    Dismiss
    Thanks!
    Something awesome is on its way.
    Back to Top

    Visit other sites in the Penguin Random House Network

    Raise kids who love to read

    Raise kids who love to read

    Today's Top Books

    Want to know what people are actually reading right now?

     An online magazine for today’s home cook

    An online magazine for today’s home cook