The Return of the Native became one of Hardy's most famous and recognised novels. It was published in 1878. The story is set on Egdon Heath, a fictitious sterile couple in Wessex in southwestern England. The local of the title is Clym Yeobright, who has come back to the area to become a schoolmaster after a successful career as a jeweller in Paris. He and his cousin Thomasin illustrate the conventional way of life, while Thomasin's husband, Damon Wildeve, and Clym's wife, Eustacia Vye, long for the adventure of city life. After a chain of co-occurances, Eustacia approaches to admit that she is liable for the death of Clym's mother. Assured that destiny has fated her to cause others pain, Eustacia runs and is sunk. Damon engulfs trying to save her. It describes the tragic prospects of romantic delusion and how its supporters fall to accept their opportunities to control their own fates. It is a novel that conveys a modern picture of a passing way of life although expressing a tale of the weaknesses of human struggle, but also finds space for the short happiness to be taken along the way. 'The Return of the Native' focuses on two young lovers confined in an unhappy marriage because they wed for the wrong reasons. The book features the difficulty with romantic dignity, and how we often end up in jails of our own making.
Thomas Hardy was born in Dorset, England in 1840. He was the son of Stone mason. He got training as an architect and worked for ten years as an architect in London and Dorset. Hardy wrote his first novel Desperate Remedies, published in 1871. His success changed his mind set and he had quit the architectural field. His novels Tess of the D'urbervilles and Jude the Obscure are considered classical in literature but at the time of publication, he faced criticism. He felt passion for poetry so he left the fiction writing and his eight poetry collection were published. He is famous for his rational and ironical writing. He feels pathetic for the worldly sorrows of humans. He criticized the Victorian belief of God and religion. He expressed his love for nature, deep consideration for poverty and rural life, disappointment for love and life and sorrow for fate and irony. His some notable writings are-Far from the Madding Crowd, The Mayor of Casterbridge, The Return of the Native, etc. He died on 11 January 1928.
