The Return of the Native

by Hardy, Thomas; Smiley, Jane

• ISBN13: 9780451527387
• ISBN10: 0451527380
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1999-08-01
• Publisher: Signet Classics

Summary

This Second Edition reprints the text of the authoritative 1912 Macmillan Wessex Edition.

Author Biography

Thomas Hardy was born on June 2, 1840. In his writing, he immortalized the site of his birth—Egdon Heath, in Dorset, near Dorchester. Delicate as a child, he was taught at home by his mother before he attended grammar school. At sixteen, Hardy was apprenticed to an architect, and for many years, architecture was his profession; in his spare time, he pursued his first and last literary love, poetry. Finally convinced that he could earn his living as an author, he retired from architecture, married, and devoted himself to writing. An extremely productive novelist, Hardy published an important book every year or two. In 1896, disturbed by the public outcry over the unconventional subjects of his two greatest novels—Tess of the D’Urbervilles and Jude the Obscure—he announced that he was giving up fiction and afterward produced only poetry. In later years, he received many honors. He died on January 11, 1928, and was buried in Poet’s Corner, in Westminster Abbey. It was as a poet that he wished to be remembered, but today critics regard his novels as his most memorable contribution to English literature for their psychological insight, decisive delineation of character, and profound presentation of tragedy.

Jane Smiley's ten works of fiction include The Age of Grief, The Greenlanders, Ordinary Love and Good Will, Moo, A Thousand Acres (which won the Pulitzer Prize), and most recently the bestselling Horse Heaven.

Table of Contents

Book One: THE THREE WOMEN
A Face on Which Time Makes but Little Impression	11	(4)
Humanity Appears upon the Scene, Hand in Hand with Trouble	15	(6)
The Custom of the Country	21	(20)
The Halt on the Turnpike Road	41	(5)
Perplexity among Honest People	46	(12)
The Figure against the Sky	58	(14)
Queen of Night	72	(6)
Those Who Are Found Where There Is Said To Be Nobody	78	(5)
Love Leads a Shrewd Man into Strategy	83	(9)
A Desperate Attempt at Persuasion	92	(9)
The Dishonesty of an Honest Woman	101	(10)
Book Two: THE ARRIVAL
Tidings of the Comer	111	(4)
The People at Blooms-End Make Ready	115	(5)
How a Little Sound Produced a Great Dream	120	(4)
Eustacia Is Led on to an Adventure	124	(10)
Through the Moonlight	134	(7)
The Two Stand Face to Face	141	(11)
A Coalition between Beauty and Oddness	152	(8)
Firmness Is Discovered in a Gentle Heart	160	(11)
Book Three: THE FASCINATION
``My Mind to Me a Kingdom Is''	171	(5)
The New Course Causes Disappointment	176	(8)
The First Act in a Timeworn Drama	184	(13)
An Hour of Bliss and Many Hours of Sadness	197	(8)
Sharp Words Are Spoken, and a Crisis Ensues	205	(6)
Yeobright Goes, and the Breach Is Complete	211	(7)
The Morning and the Evening of a Day	218	(13)
A New Force Disturbs the Current	231	(8)
Book Four: THE CLOSED DOOR
The Rencounter by the Pool	239	(6)
He Is Set upon by Adversities; but He Sings a Song	245	(10)
She Goes out to Battle against Depression	255	(12)
Rough Coercion Is Employed	267	(7)
The Journey across the Heath	274	(4)
A Conjuncture, and Its Result upon the Pedestrian	278	(10)
The Tragic Meeting of Two Old Friends	288	(8)
Eustacia Hears of Good Fortune and Beholds Evil	296	(9)
Book Five: THE DISCOVERY
``Wherefore Is Light Given to Him That Is in Misery?''	305	(7)
A Lurid Light Breaks in upon a Darkened Understanding	312	(10)
Eustacia Dresses Herself on a Black Morning	322	(7)
The Ministrations of a Half-forgotten One	329	(5)
An Old Move Inadvertently Repeated	334	(6)
Thomasin Argues with Her Cousin, and He Writes a Letter	340	(7)
The Night of the Sixth of November	347	(8)
Rain, Darkness, and Anxious Wanderers	355	(9)
Sights and Sounds Draw the Wanderers Together	364	(11)
Book Six: AFTERCOURSES
The Inevitable Movement Onward	375	(8)
Thomasin Walks in a Green Place by the Roman Road	383	(4)
The Serious Discourse of Clym with His Cousin	387	(5)
Cheerfulness Again Asserts Itself at Blooms-End, and Clym Finds His Vocation	392