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The Return of the Native
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 13 hrs and 18 mins
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Publisher's summary
One of Thomas Hardy's classic statements about modern love, courtship, and marriage, The Return of the Native is set in the pastoral village of Egdon Heath. The fiery Eustacia Vye, wishing only for passionate love, believes that her escape from Egdon lies in her marriage to Clym Yeobright, the returning "native", home from Paris and discontented with his work there. Clym wishes to remain in Egdon, however - a desire that sets him in opposition to his wife and brings them both to despair. Surrounding them are Clym's mother, who is strongly opposed to his marriage; Damon Wildeve, who is in love with Eustacia but married to Clym's cousin Thomasin; and the oddly ambiguous observer Diggory Venn, whose frustrated love for Thomasin turns him into either a guardian angel or a jealous manipulator - or perhaps both.
This stew of curdled love and conflicting emotions can only boil over into tragedy, and the book's darkly ironic ending marks it as both a classically Victorian novel and a forerunner of the modernist fiction that followed it.
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From the author of The Christmas Hirelings comes this Audible Exclusive production of Mary Elizabeth Braddon’s classic sensation novel Lady Audley’s Secret. English actress Olivia Poulet gives an assured and captivating narration; a cornerstone of the genre and a scandal at the time of its publication, Lady Audley’s Secret is an entertaining and shocking tale of high drama and shifting perceptions.
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Classic 19th Century “sensation novel”
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Ruth
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The orphaned heroine Ruth, apprenticed to a dressmaker, is seduced by wealthy Henry Bellingham who is captivated by her simplicity and beauty. Their affair causes her to lose her home and job to which he offers her shelter, only to cruelly abandon her soon after. She is offered a chance of a new life though shamed in the eyes of society by her illegitimate son. When Henry reappears offering marriage she must choose between social acceptance and her own pride.
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Fallen Woman Finds Redemption
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Ghosts: Edith Wharton's Gothic Tales
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Beneath the brilliance that was behind The Age of Innocence and Ethan Frome was a dark side. A dark side which produced magnificent tales of the unseen influences in our lives, such as "Mr. Jones", "The Eyes", "Kerfol", "The Ladie's Maid's Bell", and "The Looking Glass".
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Ghastly Shadows of the Feminine Condition
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Adam Bede
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Adam Bede (1859), George Eliot's first full-length novel, marked the emergence of an artist to rank with Scott and Dickens. Set in the English Midlands of farmers and village craftsmen at the turn of the 18th century, the book relates a story of seduction issuing in "the inward suffering which is the worst form of Nemesis". But it is also a rich and pioneering record - drawing on intimate knowledge and affectionate memory - of a rural world that we have lost.
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Very good book
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North and South
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Written at the request of Charles Dickens, North and South is a book about rebellion that poses fundamental questions about the nature of social authority and obedience. Gaskell expertly blends individual feeling with social concern and her heroine, Margaret Hale, is one of the most original creations of Victorian literature. When Margaret Hale's father leaves the Church in a crisis of conscience she is forced to leave her comfortable home in the tranquil countryside of Hampshire....
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Delightful
- By Sally on 01-04-10
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A Room with a View
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- Unabridged
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In this rich new audio production, acclaimed British American actress Rebecca Hall brings one of E. M. Forster's most admired works to life in this classic tale of human struggle. A charming young Englishwoman, Lucy Honeychurch, is wooed by both free-spirited George Emerson and wealthy Cecil Vyse while vacationing in Italy. Though attracted to George, Lucy becomes engaged to Cecil despite twice turning down his proposals. On hearing of the news, George confesses his love, leaving Lucy torn between marrying the more socially acceptable Cecil or George, the man she knows would bring her true happiness. Should Lucy choose social acceptance or true love?
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A lovely performance, and a wonderful story
- By Robert on 01-19-19
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Ethan Frome
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Ethan Frome, a poor, downtrodden New England farmer, is trapped in a loveless marriage to his invalid wife, Zeena.When Zeena's young cousin Mattie arrives to help care for her, Ethan is immediately taken by Mattie's warm, vivacious personality. They fall desperately in love as he realizes how much is missing from his life and marriage.
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Slow is smooth and smooth is Fast until it isn't
- By Darwin8u on 05-29-13
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Silas Marner
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For 15 years the weaver Silas Marner has plied his loom near the village of Raveloe, alone and unjustly in exile, cut off from faith and human love, he cares only for his hoard of golden guineas. But two events occur that will change his life forever; his gold disappears and a golden-haired baby girl appears. But where did she come from and who really stole the gold? This moving tale sees Silas eventually redeemed and restored to life by the unlikely means of his love for the orphan child Eppie.
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amazing
- By Ramon on 06-04-12
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Howards End
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Howards End is a beautifully subtle tale of two very different families brought together by an unusual event. The Schlegels are intellectuals, devotees of art and literature. The Wilcoxes are practical and materialistic, leading lives of "telegrams and anger". When the elder Mrs. Wilcox dies and her family discovers she has left their country home - Howards End - to one of the Schlegel sisters, a crisis between the two families is precipitated that takes years to resolve.
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Fantastic Narration in Delightful Story
- By Wren on 05-05-18
By: E. M. Forster
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What listeners say about The Return of the Native
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- KP
- 04-10-13
How Sweet the Sound
This book is an excellent example of how wonderful a listening experience can be when a fantastic writer combines with a gifted narrator. Thomas Hardy writes in a way that makes mundane details seem enthralling. While the story is entertaining enough, on its own it wouldn't compel four stars; it's the writing that does the trick. Well worth a listen.
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5 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Tad Davis
- 10-19-10
For Hardy fans
I have to admit this isn't one of my favorite novels by Thomas Hardy. But if you're a Hardy fan, it's well worth a listen, and Simon Vance does his usual excellent job keeping the characters straight and the action flowing. (One surprise is a fair amount of humor in the conversations among the various inhabitants of the countryside; I don't usually think of "humor" and "Thomas Hardy" in the same breath, but he has his moments.)
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1 person found this helpful
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- Sarah Irene
- 07-18-18
Beautiful
A beautifully written story telling of the customs of mid-nineteenth century English heath dwellers. An absolute pleasure from my favorite author.
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- A. K. L.
- 06-27-23
Sublime
Every major scene is set at one of the great pagan festivals of ancient Britain. The real hero is Enron Heath, Herself.
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- Bonny
- 01-21-16
Solid Thomas Hardy
Continuing my journey through Thomas Hardy's works . . . I thoroughly enjoyed The Return of the Native as narrated by Simon Vance. I found Far From The Madding Crowd and The Mayor of Casterbridge more compelling and generally more interesting, but this is a lovely listen with an excellent climax. Vance does his usual excellent job; the characters are well-voiced and differentiated. I could have lived without the voice for Grandfer Cantle (if he sang one more song I was going to have to shoot him), but thankfully he plays a very minor part. I found the character of Diggory Venn, with whom we begin the story, to be complex and fascinating.
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4 people found this helpful
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- J.B.
- 04-10-15
We Love What We Cannot Have, At Least Until . . .
Aw yes, Romantic Literature, intense emotion as an authentic source of aesthetic experience. I end each novel in adoration of the soft subtleties of the story but emotionally wrought with exhaustion. I am drained but satiated. And yet, each time I start a new novel from this classical period, I wonder why I subjected myself to this difficult English and slow and utterly non-relevant happenings with people whose style of life I will never have a common experience with which to associate – other than the essential of human interaction. Human interaction remains the same over the past 180 years. Then, some twenty percent into each book, I am in love again with the voyage I have been taken upon. The words, the words, the elegant and flowery words. All this comes true once again in The Return of the Native, by my favorite Romanticist, Thomas Hardy.
Somehow in the mist of that “difficult English and slow and utterly non-relevant happening,” there comes a Bang! A subtle little impropriety here or there, one which would never be of travail in today’s world, buckles up into the meanderings of other little “questionable” exertions taken by other of the book’s characters and the whole world of quietude is now a vortex of scandal, rashness and (purported) perfidy. A rush into the perplexity and an intellectual joy following how the story unravels itself into more and more complexity until at its penultimate of fiasco - a tranquil tragedy and a peaceful they-lived-happily-ever-after (but for the lingering memories). The Romantic novel of the English pre- and Victorian era is magnificent.
The Return of the Native is a story of one loving him/her with whom they would have been eternally happy, but for a coquettish venturesome lust that leads each character to forsake the opportunity and then has those malapropos persons attached to some other than the ideal him or her, who happened to be the former lover of the former lover or something of that nature. In The Return of the Native, everything works out to be fruitless for all. Everyone suffers some aspect of calamity – and we all learn truisms with which to go on with our own lives. Great characters, wonderful travails, superbly written and very well read.
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