The Return of the Native

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Thomas Hardy's tragic vision of a love struggling to overcome prejudice and rejection, The Return of the Native is set against the lowering background of Egdon Heath. Fiery Eustacia Vye passes her days wishing only for passionate love. She believes that her escape from Egdon lies in marriage to Clym Yeobright, home from Paris and discontented with his work there. But Clym wishes to return to the Egdon community; a desire which sets him in opposition to his wife and brings them both to despair. The novel demonstrates Hardy's claim for tragic status for ordinary human lives and the ways that the characters—especially the ill-fated lovers and Damon Wildeve—spoil their chances to master their own destinies. 'The greatest tragic writer among the English novelists' — Virginia Woolf