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A review by dylan_loves_classics
The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy
5.0
This is my favorite Hardy that I've read so far. I pretty much knew after finishing the extended opening sequence (an eventful Guy Fawkes night that introduces all but one of the major characters) that I would love this book.
The first thing that sets this book apart is the wonderful setting of Egdon Heath, a space that is simultaneously agoraphobic and claustrophobic (the heath is vast and awe-inspiring, but also serves as a kind of prison for the characters). This unsettled atmosphere is the perfect backdrop for a story of misunderstandings, incompatibility, and duality.
Enter Eustacia Vye, the passionate and capricious young woman at the center of the novel. I rank Eustacia above the returning native, Clym, simply because her development and motifs were my favorite part of the novel. Eustacia hates the heath, but both are described using the same allusions to ancient history and mythology. There's that unstable sense of duality again. My other favorite character was Diggory Venn, the borderline supernatural reddleman (someone who dealt ochre for marking sheep) who pops up throughout the story.
Like some of Hardy's other novels, parts of the chain of unfortunate events that bind the plot together do strain credulity, but given how geographically bound and small the community of the story is I don't mind as much.
Overall an excellent novel, some of the scenes are simply unforgettable.
The first thing that sets this book apart is the wonderful setting of Egdon Heath, a space that is simultaneously agoraphobic and claustrophobic (the heath is vast and awe-inspiring, but also serves as a kind of prison for the characters). This unsettled atmosphere is the perfect backdrop for a story of misunderstandings, incompatibility, and duality.
Enter Eustacia Vye, the passionate and capricious young woman at the center of the novel. I rank Eustacia above the returning native, Clym, simply because her development and motifs were my favorite part of the novel. Eustacia hates the heath, but both are described using the same allusions to ancient history and mythology. There's that unstable sense of duality again. My other favorite character was Diggory Venn, the borderline supernatural reddleman (someone who dealt ochre for marking sheep) who pops up throughout the story.
Like some of Hardy's other novels, parts of the chain of unfortunate events that bind the plot together do strain credulity, but given how geographically bound and small the community of the story is I don't mind as much.
Overall an excellent novel, some of the scenes are simply unforgettable.