The Return of the Native (1878) followed Far From the Madding Crowd (1874) as the second of Thomas Hardy's great Wessex novels. Set in Egdon Heath, a barren, windblown place, The Return of the Native tells the tangled web of love relationships between four young people -- the wild Eustacia, gentle Thomasin, brutal Wildeve, and long-suffering Clym. Thomas Hardy began and ended his writing career as a poet. In between, he wrote a number of books that many readers find emotionally-wrenching, but which are considered among the classics of 19th Century British literature, including Far From the Madding Crowd, and Tess of the D'Urbervilles.
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