Customer Reviews

Penguin Classics Return Of The Native

5 star:		(28)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This novel is very long and very tedious in it's detail and desciption of events. Not for the casual reader.

Someone else stole my thunder when describing the novel as 'ponderous'. Short on story and long on description with a heavy, heavy narrative style. I generally love Hardy's menacing style - describing a landscape and a world that isn't overly concerned with ease or fairness. The trouble is that few characters here are worthy of our sympathy. Even Thomasin, the suffering wife, has little spark or alternately, true pathos. The peripheral characters, content with their lot and truly at ease in the bleak landscape, fare better than the thinkers or brooders or lovers....True Hardy, of course, but not my first choice. Read Tess or the Mayor of Casterbridge instead, unless you're a true Hardy fan.

I'll admit it: I bought this CD for one reason only: Alan Rickman's voice. Yes, I am an addict.

The book itself is slightly boring but the reading is top notch and Alan Rickman is in great form. Wonder if he read any more books?

Not only does Thomas Hardy paint a picture with words, but Allan Rickman generates a resonating timbre with every syllable.

I'm fully convinced that "Return of the Native" is technically Hardy's best work. The other novel of his that I love is "Jude the Obscure." His beautiful heroine, Eustacia, is an enthralling character, free-spirited, seductive, and sensuous, with several men in love (or lust) with her--like Wildeve. Wildeve pretends to marry a girl named Thomasin, but it didn't happen. And he takes off on a tryst with Eustacia. However, even though they're fond of each other, neither of them are willing to get really serious about each other. She eventually disses Wildeve and as revenge he threatens to marry Thomasin after all, which is what Eustacia wants anyway, since she's become interested in a new guy in town, Clym. How does that end up? I guess you'll have to read the book :)

David Rehak
author of "Love and Madness"

First, I must confess to being an avid Alan Rickman admirer. The man could read the local phone book and I'd gladly pay to hear it. Thusly, when I found he had done an unabridged set of audio tapes of one of my favorite books -- "The Return of the Native" -- I was thrilled.

"The Return of the Native" is a compelling and beautifully written story. I especially like the way Hardy makes Egdon Heath itself as much a character in the story as the human denizens of the area, breathing life into it through his wonderful word pictures and his special talent for creating moods. Hardy's vivid descriptions and excellent character development make this an enchanting adventure.

Add to this the velvet-smooth voice of Rickman, and you have a treat for the imagination and the ears.

Rickman gives each of the characters his (or her) own separate voice, and manages to do so without forgetting how each should sound. How he kept it straight, I'll never know (I, myself, record books on tape for an educational company and know how complicated that can be!)...what with the many inhabitants of Egdon Heath he had to work with...but, he did. Rickman also actually sang the songs from the book (and not badly, either), adding another dimension.

"The Return of the Native" (unabridged) is a must for anyone who loves good literature on tape, and for anyone who is a fan of Alan Rickman. This is a stunning production and well worth the investment!

Eustacia Vye is a witchy woman- she has an aura about her that is all consuming for some. This was a dramatic novel, one I saved for years to read on cold, solitary nights with the wind blowing outside. It is a bleak tale of intermingled love stories. Eustacia isn't easy to love but she is far more determined and interesting than other characters in the classic lit canon. Clym is compelling in a different way. This is a novel, for me, of the human capacity to misunderstand and blame rather than try to communicate the heart's true desires. Very, very moving.

After listening to Return of the Native, I was simply amazed. The story was so good and I really enjoyed it. But what really took my breath away was the sensational reading of the very talented and very sexy, Alan Rickman. He just owned those characters. He gave each character a unique voice and personality. I just cannot get over how good he was. Oh, and did I mention he sings in french!!!! After listening to that part, I was speechless. I feel like I had just melted it was so beautiful!! I recommend this to ANY Rickmaniac!:)

This is one of the great ones. Give yourself time and space to enjoy sentences of poetic beauty, read by one of the greatest voices of our time. Other reviewers have covered the plot, which is engaging enough, but my chief enjoyment was in the style of writing. Hardy's words paint landscapes of the soul as well as the countryside, and intertwine them within unforgetable characters of depth and spirit. The book is long, yet there is great economy of style. Hardy arranges his phrases with the care of a classical composer, and evokes richer feelings with more grace and fewer words than most of our glib and pithy authors today. I find myself wanting to buy a thesaurus for most modern authors, and wishing that Alan Rickman would record another Thomas Hardy novel.

Set on the dull but beautiful English heath, this 1830s story of love and loss is not for those who like quick reads. This relatively slow-moving novel is saturated with loving descriptions of the indelicate terrain, the weather, and character's moods.

Those characters include the colorfully named Eustacia Vye and Clym Yeobright, a tragically linked couple that graces most of the 482 pages. Not nearly as dismal as some of Hardy's other works, this detailed epic offers a bittersweet quality that will haunt the reader long after the last emotional chapter.

I criiiiiiiied...