The Return of the Native

The classic novel about love and ambition set in the countryside of England from the beloved author of Jude the Obscure.The rural tranquility of the heather-covered English countryside is the setting for this moving novel of conflicting aspirations and tragic destiny. Clym Yeobright returns from Paris to the village of his birth, idealistically inspired to improve the life of the men and women of Egdon Heath. But his plans are upset when he falls in love with a passionately beautiful, darkly discontented girl, Eustacia Vye, who longs to escape from her provincial surroundings. A book of classic dimension and heroic design, The Return of the Native is the forerunner of the modern psychological novel—poetic, vivid, and universal. With an Introduction by Jane Smiley and an Afterword by Jeffrey Meyers