Reading Order
The Return of the Native Reading Order
The Return of the Native (1878) by Thomas Hardy is organized around Egdon Heath — a vast, brooding stretch of moorland in Dorset that Hardy describes in his opening chapter with a grandeur that makes it a character in its own right. Against this landscape Hardy places Eustacia Vye (a beautiful, passionate, romantic woman who wants Paris and hates the heath), Clym Yeobright (a diamond merchant who has returned from Paris and wants to become a schoolteacher on the heath he loves), Thomasin Yeobright (Clym's gentle cousin), and Damon Wildeve (the handsome, weak man who loves Eustacia but marries Thomasin). The novel is organized around the failure of the most obvious marriages: Eustacia and Clym marry, but Clym's eyesight fails and he cannot escape the heath she hates; Wildeve inherits money and offers Eustacia escape; and the novel ends in the darkness of the heath with drowning. The Return of the Native is Hardy's most classical and most structured novel — the unities of time and place (a year on Egdon Heath) give it a tragic concentration — and Eustacia Vye is one of the most fully realized tragic heroines in Victorian fiction.
Where to start
The Return of the Native (1878) — the complete novel. Best Hardy reading order: Far from the Madding Crowd → The Return of the Native → The Mayor of Casterbridge → Tess of the D'Urbervilles → Jude the Obscure.
Complete The Return of the Native Book List
- 1Buy
The Return of the Native
Thomas Hardy·1878·The complete novel — Eustacia Vye, Clym Yeobright, and Egdon Heath. Hardy's most classical novel; the Oxford World's Classics edition with an introduction by Simon Gatrell is the standard scholarly edition - 2Buy
Far from the Madding Crowd
Thomas Hardy·1874·The companion predecessor — Bathsheba Everdene and her three suitors. The companion as the optimistic pastoral version of the same investigation: where Far from the Madding Crowd allows a resolution, The Return of the Native is the tragic version - 3Buy
Tess of the D'Urbervilles
Thomas Hardy·1891·The companion — Tess's tragedy. The companion as the fullest statement of the same theme: the beautiful passionate woman destroyed by the intersection of character and circumstance in a world that has no mercy for her mistake - 4Buy
The Mayor of Casterbridge
Thomas Hardy·1886·The companion — Michael Henchard's self-destruction. The companion investigation of the same tragic form: where The Return of the Native gives Eustacia an active tragic flaw (her hatred of the heath, her willingness to deceive Clym), The Mayor of Casterbridge gives Henchard a lifetime of self-destructive choices organized around the same tragic inevitability - 5Buy
Madame Bovary
Gustave Flaubert·1857·Flaubert's companion investigation of the same figure — Emma Bovary trapped in provincial France, wanting Paris and romance. The companion as the French predecessor of the same tragic investigation: Eustacia Vye and Emma Bovary are companion figures — both provincial women of passionate temperament who are destroyed by the gap between their romantic imagination and their actual circumstances - 6Buy
Anna Karenina
Leo Tolstoy·1877·Tolstoy's companion investigation of the passionate woman who defies the social world to pursue love. The companion as the Russian investigation of the same theme: Anna and Eustacia are companion figures — both women of extraordinary vitality and beauty who are destroyed by the combination of their own passionate natures and the societies that cannot accommodate them - 7Buy
Hedda Gabler
Henrik Ibsen·1891·Ibsen's companion — Hedda's trapped idealism. The companion as the dramatic version of the same investigation: Hedda Gabler and Eustacia Vye are companion figures — both women of exceptional temperament trapped in marriages and social situations that cannot contain them - 8Buy
Wuthering Heights
Emily Brontë·1847·Brontë's companion investigation of the passionate romantic temperament and the landscape that expresses it. The companion as the predecessor of the same form: Egdon Heath and the Yorkshire moors are companion landscapes — both express the same romantic excess and both serve as the environment in which tragic passion becomes inevitable
The Return of the Native — Frequently Asked Questions
What is The Return of the Native about?
The Return of the Native is about several people trapped on Egdon Heath — a vast Dorset moorland that Hardy describes in the opening chapter with grandeur. At the center are Eustacia Vye (a passionate, beautiful woman who dreams of Paris and hates the heath), Clym Yeobright (who has returned from Paris to be a schoolteacher on the heath he loves), Thomasin Yeobright (Clym's gentle cousin), and Damon Wildeve (who loves Eustacia but marries Thomasin). The novel follows the failure of the obvious match (Eustacia and Clym) and the catastrophic consequences: Clym's eyesight fails and he is tied to the heath she hates; Wildeve, who has now inherited money, offers Eustacia escape; and the novel ends in drowning on the dark heath. The title refers to Clym's return — the 'native' who comes back to his birthplace — but the novel is really organized around Eustacia's inability to escape.
Who is Eustacia Vye in The Return of the Native?
Eustacia Vye is Thomas Hardy's most fully realized tragic heroine — a beautiful, passionate, romantic young woman who lives with her grandfather on the edge of Egdon Heath and whose entire energy is organized around her desire to escape it. She hates the heath with the intensity of someone who was made for a different world, and she dreams of Paris and society and romance with the passion of someone who has read too many novels. Hardy's description of her in the opening chapters ('Queen of Night') is one of the most romantic portraits in Victorian fiction. She marries Clym Yeobright because she thinks he will take her back to Paris; when she discovers he wants to stay on the heath and become a schoolteacher, her marriage becomes her trap. Her relationship with the returning Wildeve, her entanglement in the plot that leads to Clym's mother's death, and her final drowning in the pond on Egdon Heath constitute one of the great tragic narratives in Hardy's work.
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