'Do I desire unreasonably much in wanting what is called life - music, poetry,
passion, war, and all the beating and pulsing that is going on in the great arteries of the
world?'
Tempestuous Eustacia Vye passes her days dreaming of passionate love and the escape it
may bring from the small community of Egdon Heath. Hearing that Clym Yeobright is to return
from Paris, she sets her heart on marrying him, believing that through him she can leave
rural life and find fulfilment elsewhere. But she is to be disappointed, for Clym has dreams
of his own, and they have little in common with Eustacia's. Their unhappy marriage causes
havoc in the lives of those close to them, in particular Damon Wildeve, Eustacia's former
lover, Clym's mother and his cousin Thomasin. The Return of the Native illustrates
the tragic potential of romantic illusion and how its protagonists fail to recognize their
opportunities to control their own destinies.
The Penguin English Library - 100 editions of the best fiction in English, from the
eighteenth century and the very first novels to the beginning of the First World War.
