Return of the Native Book

Can you go home again? Thomas Hardy asks that simple question in his magnificent novel, The Return of the Native...written in 1878...set in a vast sparsely populated land in rural England called Edgon Heath. Rolling hills, the quiet grasslands and small but valuable shrubs, the furze bush .. empty except for isolated cottages, little hamlets and people struggling to survive the harsh conditions in the valley's meager farms and their loneliness. The native coming back is Mr.Clement (Clym) Yeobright, a local legend...a strange move leaving glamorous Paris, involved in the lucrative diamond business there to return home, a few more years and he would become rich. His mother is puzzled , why ? He slowly reveals a dream ...become a teacher...educate the ignorant superstitious poor inhabitants. ..give them a brighter future. Nevertheless reality sets in quickly, his pretty cousin Thomasin had married a man, Damon Wildeve in love with another. Eustacia Vye, a beautiful woman who roams the hills in the dark of night, a ghostly mirage...some say she's a witch others don't care but are fascinated by the free spirit. Her grandfather gives the young girl the freedom...like a wild animal she floats and appears and vanishes never letting anyone get close but Mr. Wildeve...this is the problem. Eustacia is all alone, only the old grandfather sees her, she prefers that, not comfortable in the country, a city girl ...but yearning to visit the outside...the exciting world, Clym marries the ambitious lady... (his mother objected, as she did her niece) the goal, enchanting Paris, ( she Miss Vye will be disappointed) the town that the husband despises, he wants needs, the calm and the peace. Still in the beginning nobody doubts the two's great feelings for each other... the dazzlingly flame burns high...but the inevitable decline occurs..Another man a former unsuccessful suitor of Thomasin , Diggory Venn, a traveling salesman, with an unique color, still has the passion, yet helps her marry a rival...he longs to make her happy to the obviously unsuitable man, Damon, not interested in his new wife, but desiring to make his love jealous. Five persons...two unhappy marriages the math will not add up..yet the story goes on... many complications arrive. Tragedy and misunderstanding permeates the narrative, feelings change and change again, the atmosphere is full of foreboding. ..the crisis cannot be far away...Hardy gives a demonstration of his power to tear open and reveal the mystery of the human condition , their enormous weaknesses...show them in a quite unflattering light..but also the goodness too. One of the writer's best...a classic.