The Return of the Native

The Return of the Native

The Return of the Native is considered the first of Hardy’s major tragic novels. He began writing it in 1876 when he and Emma moved from London back to Dorset. Hardy finished the novel in 1878. Leslie Stephen, the editor of the Cornhill, rejected an early version of it. In a letter to a friend Hardy discussed Leslie’s concerns:

Though he [Leslie Stephens] liked the opening, he feared that the relations between Eustacia, Wildeve, and Thomasin might develop into something ‘dangerous’ for a family magazine, and he refused to have anything to do with it unless he could see the whole.

(F.W. Maitland, The Life and Letters of Leslie Stephens)

Although Hardy followed some of Stephen’s advice, he did not submit it again to the Cornhill Magazine, which had published serially Far From the Madding Crowd in 1874. The Return of the Native was serialized in Belgravia from January to December 1878. Each installment was accompanied by an illustration by Arthur Hopkins. Hardy was very particular about the illustrations. He himself drew a map of Egdon Heath, the district where all of the events in the book take place. In a letter to Hopkins Hardy warned him that he may have problems with the setting of the novel: “the scenes are somewhat outlandish, and may be unduly troublesome to you.” He also drew sketches for Hopkins and tried to explain to him the way he saw the characters. Hardy did not like the main heroine’s first illustration:

It is rather ungenerous to criticise; but since you invite me to do so I will say that I think Eustacia should be represented as more youthful in face, and, in general, with a little more roundness and softness that have been given her. Perhaps it is well for me to give you the following ideas of the story as a guide—Thomasin, as you have divined, is the good heroine, and she ultimately marries the reddleman, and lives happily. Eustacia is the wayward and erring heroine. She married Yeobright, the son of Mrs Yeobright, is unhappy and dies.

(Quoted from The Return of the Native, A Norton Critical Edition)

Hardy was happy with Eustacia’s next illustration in the August installment and wrote to Hopkins: “I think Eustacia is charming—she is certainly just what I imagined her to be, and the rebelliousness of her nature is precisely caught in your drawing.