Young readers with short attention spans should shy away from this novel. It is a story of a love triangle set in the heaths of 19th century England. Each character has a well-developed psyche which comes out in their actions. Hardy shows the motivations that bring out the evil-appearing actions that humans do. The heath is a wonderful figure of this. Boring, ugly, and unsatisfying at times, and beautiful and artsy at others. The end, though really not a surprise comes suddenly. Younger readers should keep a dictionary at their sides while reading this. Even if one does not quite get what is happening, the language it is written in is very poetic.

Warning: This audio book is highly addictive!!!
Maybe you have to like Thomas Hardy before making your mind up to settling down to listen your way through all the 12 tapes. But you will learn to yearn for just another chapter of this, after the first tape. Another word to the yet undecided: the Return is not half as dismal as Jude the Obscure or Tess of the Durberville.
On top of the drama between six persons and the heath, which figures as another dramatis personae, there comes Mr. Rickman's superb reading. He gives every person not only his or her own characteristic voice. But his descriptions of the landscape make you see the scenery (apart from the introduction, the description of Mrs. Yeobright's garden on the day of her fatal excursion is compelling. He makes you feel the sweltering heat of that day). Just two highlights certainly are the dicing-game on the midnight heath (tape 6) as well as Clyms and Eustacias final dispute (tape 10). But the whole recording in itself is a highlight.
Just one technical afterthought: It would be sensible to edit it on CD. Tapes do not keep so well in the long run and I tremble that one day the tapes may give up.

Hardy's talent soars in this novel, as he creates an atmosphere of love, death and life on Egdon Heath. Hardy's characters come to life on the pages, and they carry incredible amounts of emotion, passion and romance in their words. My favorite character, Eustacia Vye is an romantic, evil, and twisted woman who is out to get only what she thinks she deserves. She'll ruin everything in her path to get the man and the wealth that she wants. My least favorite character, Thomasin Yeobright, is a meek and "perfect" character who is so naive that she finds herself in irreversible situations. Other characters that intermingle in the story include Diggory Venn, Clym Yeobright, and my favorite male character, Damon Wileve. All five aforementioned people change and mold eachother into adults as they love, help, hurt and harm eachother. A trail of destined events leads to the explosive ending, and allows the novel to come to an incredible close, where no character is left untouched. Return of the Native is now one of my favorite books! If you like romance, drama, and fantasy, then this book could be perfect for you. It starts off a little slow, but before too long, Hardy will have you enveloped in the lives of his characters, and you won't be able to put it down!