Catching up on Classics (and lots more!) discussion

This is the discussion thread for The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy our Old School Classic Group Read for October 2015.

Spoilers allowed here.

Please feel free to discuss anything you wish, relating to the book and let us know what you thought.

On book 5 chapter 3. The big confrontation between eustacia and clym and have found myself falling in love with her. She understands herself so well. Shes grow so much. And the angst is just lovely.

Well, they're dead now. Wish i knew whether eustacia jumped or fell. Glad damon turned out not to be such a jerk after all. At least about her. But now that the actually interesting characters are dead I dont know that the novels got anywhere else to go.

I've just completed book 1.

I want to test my understanding: Eustscia and Damon Wildeve HAVE been physically intimate--first base?

I assumed the were lovers. Proper lovers. But she never got pregnant so also very lucky ones?

Very lucky she didn't get pregnant.

I also thought they were proper lovers. Why else (I didn't like Wildeve very much...) would he have stayed with her for so long? He did not show that much interest in Thomasin and was ready to drop her.

Maybe E wasn't just lucky. Probably she took some kind of herbal contraceptive like Pennyroyal. She did have much freedom roaming over the heath and also in general, so she could have taken it secrectly.

Personally I didn't think they were lovers in the sense that they had a sexual relationship at all. I don't think this would have been the case, especially for a woman who thought herself a class above others, though I could be completely wrong.

At the beginning I thought Eustacia was going to take a fancy to Clym and figured that she'd get her comeuppance in some way. Although I thought she'd have an affair with Wildeve and so I was surprised that they didn't give into their impulses. Eustacia and Wildeve both had enough respect for their marriage not to indulge in an affair, which makes me again think they might have behaved honourably before they were each married. They both made rash and foolish decisions, spiting each other by their choices and it struck me that they were also the two people who didn't really care for their surroundings. Were they punished for wanting more for themselves than Egdon could offer? They left the place they often complained of, but didn't get a happy departure.

As for Diggory, I waited the whole book for the reddleman to unredden himself, so he could win Thomasin's heart! I'm glad it finally happened, even if it did feel like an anti-climax by the end.

What did you all think about Clym's ending? I liked him at the beginning and found myself disliking him more as the story went on. He seemed to have a sad and lonely life, but it was perhaps fitting, as he was far from perfect himself.

I think I changed my opinion on most of the characters throughout the book. Either they grew on me or grated on me, but I definitely became more invested in the story the further I read. I'm looking forward to another Hardy book now!

Apparently Hardy intended an unhappy ending originally with no marriage where tamsin remains a widow. He felt it more appropriate to the otherwise austere work; felt the happy ending was forced and jarring.

I find evidence for the more carnal interpretation of E and D's relationship in the description of E as a goddess and as pagan. Gods were in no way angelic in that sense.

I've just completed ch 2 of bk 3.

Yeobright obviously hasn't read the bible where it says that one cannot be a prophet in one's own land.

I don't think his plans to educate everyone on the Heath is going to go well.

His eyesight isn't great maybe he didn't read that far.

Sylwia wrote: "His eyesight isn't great maybe he didn't read that far."

Haha, that made me laugh!

I haven't read the comments above as I have just finished book 3 where Eustscia and Clym get married!

What disaster! Neither of these two were fully honest with one another!

I can't wait to see what Eustscia, who fancies herself as a fine lady of leisure when her husband reveals that he expects her to be "matron" of girl students at this school of his!

I finished this a couple of days ago. I was bored through much of the first half, but the second half absolutely made up for it.

The set-up took a long time, but once all the pieces were in place, it had that slow-motion car crash feeling that all good tragedies create - where you're sitting there paralyzed and riveted, going, Oh, no, oh no!

For me, the setting was what made this novel special. I loved the nature and pagan details worked into the descriptions. It brought together the land and the people into a rich, living place. I'll definitely be returning to Hardy's Wessex.

With all the turves, reddlemen, furze and adders, this book taught me a lot. I had no idea there are poisonous snakes in England!

Slo-mo car crash is a good way to describe it... Madame Bovary had that going for it, too.