The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Return of the Native is one of Thomas Hardy’s “novels of character and environment” set in Wessex. It comes after Far from the Madding Crowd and is followed by the Mayor of Casterbridge. The “native” mentioned in the title is Clym Yeobright who returns to the Egdon Heath after having lived and worked in Paris. But he is not happy with his life in Paris; instead he wants to pursue a dream of becoming a school teacher.

Clym’s cousin Thomasin is supposed to have married Damon Wildeve, but something has gone wrong with the paperwork, and she rides back home with Diggory Venn, the reddleman. Venn has asked Thomasin to marry him in the past, but was turned down. Wildeve is attracted to Eustacia Vye, and so has mixed feelings about marrying Thomasin. This is the environment to which Clym is returning.

I won’t go much beyond this because potential spoilers, but Clym, Thomasin, Eustacia and Wildeve form a sort of lover’s quadrangle which is not very stable. When we add in Clym’s mother, Mrs Yeobright and Diggory Venn and of course the heath itself, it is an interesting and compelling story.

I read this book many years ago and I found it just as exciting as I did then. It’s definitely worth reading; I think it is one of Hardy’s better novels.