63 pages 2 hours read

Thomas Hardy

The Return of the Native

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1878

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Part 1, Chapters 1-11Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1: “The Three Women”

Part 1, Chapter 1 Summary: “A Face on Which Time Makes but Little Impression”

Hardy establishes Egdon Heath as the setting. It is based upon Wessex, England, where he grew up. Wild and uncivilized, filled with rounds, hollows, thorns, moss, stumps, barrows, and furze, one can barely penetrate it except by following the road cutting through it. Untouched by the vicissitudes of life experienced by the villages, the people, and even the natural elements of field and river, Egdon Heath remains the same. The heath takes on a vitality of its own and becomes a character in the story, an animated but desolate expanse of terrain challenging its occupants, which Hardy calls “a face upon which time makes but little impression” (9).

Part 1, Chapter 2 Summary: “Humanity Appears upon the Scene, Hand in Hand with Trouble”

An old man walks down the road, supported by his walking stick. A man of substance and authority, he might be a naval officer. He peers ahead and sees a peculiarly lurid red van. The driver, who walks beside the van, is himself red from top to toe, a “reddleman” who supplies reddle, a red ochre, used by farmers to mark their sheep. The narrator describes him as a “nearly perished link between obsolete forms of life and those which generally prevail” (13).

blurred text
blurred text
blurred text
blurred text
blurred text
blurred text
blurred text
blurred text
Unlock IconUnlock all 63 pages of this Study Guide
Plus, gain access to 8,500+ more expert-written Study Guides.
Including features:
+ Mobile App
+ Printable PDF
+ Literary AI Tools