The Return of the Native

Thomas Hardy · 1840–1928 · England

Why it matters

Egdon Heath, vast, ancient, and indifferent, broods over Eustacia Vye's desperate hunger to escape it and the native son who returns to embrace what she can't wait to flee. Hardy's landscape becomes its most fully realized character here, a near-mythic backdrop that outlasts every human plan laid against it.

At a glance

Slow-building and heavily descriptive, with the heath's famous opening chapter testing patience early.