The Return of the Native

A haunting tale of romantic self-deception, The Return of the Nativefocuses on mismatched lovers who see in each other only what they want to see, and decidedly not what is actually there.

Clym Yeobright, the native of the title, returns to Hardyƒ??s fictional Egdon Heath determined to be a force for social progress. Dazzled by the beauty of Eustacia Vye, he imagines theyƒ??re soul mates, woos and wins her, and enters into what is at first a passionate marriage. He soon discovers that what she really wants is a passport to a more exciting and sophisticated life, away from provincial England. Surrounding them are Clymƒ??s mother, strongly opposed to his marriage; Damon Wildeve, in love with Eustacia but married to Clymƒ??s cousin, Thomasin; and the oddly ambiguous observer Diggory Venn, whose frustrated love for Thomasin turns him into either a guardian angel or a jealous manipulatorƒ??or perhaps both. This stew of curdled love and conflicting emotions can only boil over into tragedy, and the bookƒ??s darkly ironic ending marks it as both a classically Victorian novel and a forerunner of the modernist fiction that followed it.