Description

First published in 1878.

Proud passionate Eustacia Vye marries Clym Yeobright in the hop that he will help her escape her cramped rural existence. But when their relationship falters and her old lover Damon Wildeve reappears with an unexpected inheritance, Eustacia is faced with a series of decisions upon which multiple lives depend. In a world where misunderstandings can be fatal, this atmospheric tragedy moves inevitably towards a disastrous climax on the brooding wilds of Egdon Heath.

The Return of the Native is set in Hardy’s fictional Wessex. Now one of his most popular books, its controversial themes left him struggling to find a publisher in the 1870s.