Book Excerpt: during winter darkness, tempests, and mists. Then Egdon was aroused to reciprocity; for the storm was its lover, and the wind its friend. Then it became the home of strange phantoms; and it was found to be the hitherto unrecognized original of those wild regions of obscurity which are vaguely felt to be compassing us about in midnight dreams of flight and disaster, and are never thought of after the dream till revived by scenes like this.It was at present a place perfectly accordant with man's nature--neither ...
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Book Excerpt: during winter darkness, tempests, and mists. Then Egdon was aroused to reciprocity; for the storm was its lover, and the wind its friend. Then it became the home of strange phantoms; and it was found to be the hitherto unrecognized original of those wild regions of obscurity which are vaguely felt to be compassing us about in midnight dreams of flight and disaster, and are never thought of after the dream till revived by scenes like this.It was at present a place perfectly accordant with man's nature--neither ghastly, hateful, nor ugly; neither commonplace, unmeaning, nor tame; but, like man, slighted and enduring; and withal singularly colossal and mysterious in its swarthy monotony. As with some persons who have long lived apart, solitude seemed to look out of its countenance. It had a lonely face, suggesting tragical possibilities.This obscure, obsolete, superseded country figures in Domesday. Its condition is recorded therein as that of heathy, furzy, briary wilderness--"Bruaria." Then folRead More
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Add this copy of The Return of the Native to cart. $38.83, new condition, Sold by Booksplease rated 3.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Southport, MERSEYSIDE, UNITED KINGDOM, published 2018 by Simon & Brown.
Add this copy of The Return of the Native to cart. $49.24, good condition, Sold by Bonita rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Newport Coast, CA, UNITED STATES, published 2018 by Simon & Brown.
Return of the Native is Hardy at his very best, it is beautifully dark and dangerous, from the start to almost the very end. The characters are sublime yet believable, and the heath (the most important character of them all) positively oozes suspence and unpredictablilty. The turbulate relationships scream out disaster, and fill any reader with a sense of forboding and a desperate wish for a happy ending. However the 'Happy' end is not so comforting when it comes as it seems strangly out of place with the rest of the novel. Overall Return of the native presents a beautiful and lost world from before the wars. well worth a read dispite the lenghty sentences and the vast descriptions that may put some off.
