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The Return of the Native

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A Saturday afternoon in November was approaching the time of twilight, and the vast tract of unenclosed wild known as Egdon Heath embrowned itself moment by moment. Overhead the hollow stretch of whitish cloud shutting out the sky was as a tent which had the whole heath for its floor.

The heaven being spread with this pallid screen and the earth with the darkest vegetation, their meeting-line at the horizon was clearly marked. In such contrast the heath wore the appearance of an instalment of night which had taken up its place before its astronomical hour was come: darkness had to a great extent arrived hereon, while day stood distinct in the sky. Looking upwards, a furze-cutter would have been inclined to continue work; looking down, he would have decided to finish his faggot and go home. The distant rims of the world and of the firmament seemed to be a division in time no less than a division in matter. The face of the heath by its mere complexion added half an hour to evening; it could in like manner retard the dawn, sadden noon, anticipate the frowning of storms scarcely generated, and intensify the opacity of a moonless midnight to a cause of shaking and dread.

In fact, precisely at this transitional point of its nightly roll into darkness the great and particular glory of the Egdon waste began, and nobody could be said to understand the heath who had not been there at such a time. It could best be felt when it could not clearly be seen, its complete effect and explanation lying in this and the succeeding hours before the next dawn; then, and only then, did it tell its true tale. The spot was, indeed, a near relation of night, and when night showed itself an apparent tendency to gravitate together could be perceived in its shades and the scene. The sombre stretch of rounds and hollows seemed to rise and meet the evening gloom in pure sympathy, the heath exhaling darkness as rapidly as the heavens precipitated it. And so the obscurity in the air and the obscurity in the land closed together in a black fraternization towards which each advanced halfway.

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Table of contents PREFACE BOOK ONE — THE THREE WOMEN 1—A Face on Which Time Makes but Little Impression 2—Humanity Appears upon the Scene, Hand in Hand with Trouble 3—The Custom of the Country 4—The Halt on the Turnpike Road 5—Perplexity among Honest People 6—The Figure against the Sky 7—Queen of Night 8—Those Who Are Found Where There Is Said to Be Nobody 9—Love Leads a Shrewd Man into Strategy 10—A Desperate Attempt at Persuasion 11—The Dishonesty of an Honest Woman BOOK TWO — THE ARRIVAL 1—Tidings of the Comer 2—The People at Blooms-End Make Ready 3—How a Little Sound Produced a Great Dream 4—Eustacia Is Led on to an Adventure 5—Through the Moonlight 6—The Two Stand Face to Face 7—A Coalition between Beauty and Oddness 8—Firmness Is Discovered in a Gentle Heart BOOK THREE — THE FASCINATION 1—“My Mind to Me a Kingdom Is” 2—The New Course Causes Disappointment 3—The First Act in a Timeworn Drama 4—An Hour of Bliss and Many Hours of Sadness 5—Sharp Words Are Spoken, and a Crisis Ensues 6—Yeobright Goes, and the Breach Is Complete 7—The Morning and the Evening of a Day 8—A New Force Disturbs the Current BOOK FOUR — THE CLOSED DOOR 1—The Rencounter by the Pool 2—He Is Set upon by Adversities but He Sings a Song 3—She Goes Out to Battle against Depression 4—Rough Coercion Is Employed 5—The Journey across the Heath 6—A Conjuncture, and Its Result upon the Pedestrian 7—The Tragic Meeting of Two Old Friends 8—Eustacia Hears of Good Fortune, and Beholds Evil BOOK FIVE — THE DISCOVERY 1—“Wherefore Is Light Given to Him That Is in Misery” 2—A Lurid Light Breaks in upon a Darkened Understanding 3—Eustacia Dresses Herself on a Black Morning 4—The Ministrations of a Half-forgotten One 5—An Old Move Inadvertently Repeated 6—Thomasin Argues with Her Cousin, and He Writes a Letter 7—The Night of the Sixth of November 8—Rain, Darkness, and Anxious Wanderers 9—Sights and Sounds Draw the Wanderers Together BOOK SIX — AFTERCOURSES 1—The Inevitable Movement Onward 2—Thomasin Walks in a Green Place by the Roman Road 3—The Serious Discourse of Clym with His Cousin 4—Cheerfulness Again Asserts Itself at Blooms-End, and Clym Finds His

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