Return of the Native (Penguin Popular Classics)

Complete and unabridged.

Set against the seasonal changes of Egdon Heath, The Return of the Native is the story of Eustacia Vye, a proud and passionate young woman, whose heart leads her inevitably towards tragedy.

A delay in the marriage of Damon Wildeve and Thomasin Yeobright has allowed Wildeve time for second thoughts. He visits his former love, Eustacia, and is made to decide which of the two women to marry, for Eustacia has a prior claim and is of higher birth. Both women, however, are found to have rivals for Wildeve, and he must act quickly to secure a bride.

Thus the ambitions, passions and prejudices of the rural community are played out, each character facing dilemmas and moral decisions, possessing human weaknesses and struggling against a destiny that they cannot hope either to avoid or to conquer.

THOMAS HARDY was born on June 2, 1840. His father was a stonemason. He was brought up near Dorchester and trained as an architect. In 1868 his work took him to St Juliot's church in Cornwall where he met his wife-to-be, Emma. His first novel, The Poor Man and the Lady, was rejected by publishers but Desperate Remedies was published in 1871 and this was rapidly followed by Under the Greenwood Tree (1872), A Pair of Blue Eyes (1873) and Far from the Madding Crowd (1874). He also wrote many other novels, poems and short stories. Tess of the D'Urbervilles was published in 1891. His final novel was Jude the Obscure (1895). Hardy was awarded the Order of Merit in 1920 and the gold medal of the Royal Society of Literature in 1912. His wife died in 1912 and he later married his secretary. Thomas Hardy died January 11, 1928.