The Return of the Native (1878) followed Far From the Madding Crowd (1874) as the second of Thomas Hardy's great Wessex novels.
Thomas Hardy began and ended his writing career as a poet. In between, he wrote a number of books that many readers find emotionally-wrenching, but which are considered among the classics of 19th Century British literature, including Tess of the D'Urbervilles. Readers will experience Hardy's realism in The Return of the Native, but here, it is tempered with romance and redemption.