"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
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The Return of the Native
Narrated by Leighton Pugh
Thomas HardyUnabridged — 15 hours, 33 minutes
![The Return of the Native](http://img.images-bn.com/static/redesign/srcs/images/grey-box.png?v11.9.4)
The Return of the Native
Narrated by Leighton Pugh
Thomas HardyUnabridged — 15 hours, 33 minutes
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Overview
Widely recognised as the most representative of Hardy's Wessex novels. He evokes the dismal presence and menacing beauty of Egdon Heath - reaching out to touch the lives and fate of all who dwell on it. The central figure is Clym Yeobright, the returning `native' and the story tells of his love for the beautiful but capricious Eustacia Vye.
As the narrative unfolds and character after character is driven to self-destruction the presence of the Heath becomes all-embracing, while Clym becomes a travelling preacher in an attempt to assuage his guilt.
Editorial Reviews
The Return of the Native is the most artistically perfect of [Hardy’] novels to date...his style has gained in power and clarity.”
This is the quality Hardy shares with the great writers…This setting behind the small action the terrific action of unfathomed nature.”
Into the landscape he begins to weave human figures. They are very much alive; have faults and passions, virtues and vices, good luck and tragic mishaps…Hardy arrives at last at the end of his novel…having produced a most charming, original sketch of the lives of quiet people in one nook of England.”
The Return of the Native is one of the most remarkable books of the last twenty years.”
"Simon Avery has edited Hardy's The Return of the Native with great skill: his footnotes are detailed and extensive without becoming intrusive; his bibliography of further reading selects judiciously from old and new materials; and he gives a generous range of contemporary materials to help contextualise the book. Alongside the unmistakable nineteenth-century concerns present in Hardy's novel, Avery alerts us to less well-known ones, illuminating in particular Hardy's depiction of Eustacia Vye, who can be seen from this edition as a precursor to Sue Bridehead, the proto-feminist of Jude the Obscure. Distinctively too, Avery includes a selection of Hardy's poetry, helpfully breaking down the barrier between Hardy the novelist and Hardy the poet. In all respects, the volume continues the excellent standard of Broadview Hardy editions."
"Simon Avery's edition of The Return of the Native, Hardy's first great classic, provides a beautifully balanced, meticulously researched resource. Avery's editorial approach is, in every respect, new and fresh – even in his interpretation of the novel's denouement. Offering a wide range of critical perspectives, the compelling Introduction features a rich collection of viewpoints and critiques in a manner so informative, compact, and stylish that exploration becomes the modus operandi within and beyond the plot. In turn, the appendices at the end of the book complement the contextualising of the Introduction and footnotes. A selection of Hardy's other writings in prose and poetry adds textual weight and structural balance overall."
A story of isolation, passion, and misplaced lovers, Hardy’s classic novel is moving and enigmatic. The almost druidic nature of the fictional Egdon Heath sets an ominous atmosphere that permeates the novel. Nicholas Rowe’s narration is both subtle and resonant. He has a soft, melodic way of speaking that resonates with Hardy’s vivid descriptive style. Rowe’s steady pace throughout the reading allows the listener to take in the complex images that Hardy creates through meticulous diction. Rowe also captures the characters expertly. The passionate Eustacia speaks hurriedly and emphatically while the removed Wildeve embodies disinterest and brevity in his speech. Through Rowe’s compelling performance, this production is a masterful portrayal of Hardy’s haunting novel. D.M.W. © AudioFile 2014, Portland, Maine
Product Details
BN ID: | 2940192506431 |
---|---|
Publisher: | SNR Audio |
Publication date: | 05/30/2024 |
Edition description: | Unabridged |
Read an Excerpt
A SATURDAY afternoon in November was approaching the time of twilight, and the vast tract of unenclosed wild known as Egdon Heath embrowned itself moment by moment. Overhead the hollow stretch of whitish cloud shutting out the sky was as a tent which had the whole heath for its floor.
The heaven being spread with this pallid screen and the earth with the darkest vegetation, their meeting-line at the horizon was clearly marked. In such contrast the heath wore the appearance of an instalment of night which had taken up its place before its astronomical hour was come: darkness had to a great extent arrived hereon, while day stood distinct in the sky. Looking upwards, a furze-cutter would have been inclined to continue work; looking down, he would have decided to finish his faggot and go home. The distant rims of the world and of the firmament seemed to be a division in time no less than a division in matter. The face of the heath by its mere complexion added half an hour to evening; it could in like manner retard the dawn, sadden noon, anticipate the frowning of storms scarcely generated, and intensify the opacity of a moonless midnight to a cause of shaking dread.
In fact, precisely at this transitional point of its nightly roll into darkness the great and particular glory of the Egdon waste began, and nobody could be said to understand the heath who had not been there at such a time. It could best be felt when it could not clearly be seen, its complete effect and explanation lying in this and the succeeding hours before the next dawn: then, and only then, did it tell its true tale. The spot was, indeed, a near relation of night, and when night showed itself an apparenttendency to gravitate together could be perceived in its shades and the scene. The sombre stretch of rounds and hollows seemed to rise and meet the evening gloom in pure sympathy, the heath exhaling darkness as rapidly as the heavens precipitated it. And so the obscurity in the air and the obscurity in the land closed together in a black fraternization towards which each advanced half-way.
The place became full of a watchful intentness now; for when other things sank brooding to sleep the heath appeared slowly to awake and listen. Every night its Titanic form seemed to await something; but it had waited thus, unmoved, during so many centuries, through the crises of so many things, that it could only be imagined to await one last crisis—the final overthrow.
From the Paperback edition.
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