The Return of the Native (Abridged) Audiobook

" As the World of Wessex Turns. Hardy's books are better than soaps. Love...pentagons? abound and nothing ever ends all that happily. "

" This was an audiobook that I had to return to the library, then two years later took it back out and listened to the whole thing in a single month. "

" What surprised me most it that Hardy could take such a small cast of unworldly (and unsympathetic) characters in such a unsophisticated setting and make such a compelling story! "

" I don't remember a lot of this book, so it only gets an OK. I remember Eustacia Vye being a rather mean person and the fact that Holden Caulfield liked her in the Catcher in the Rye. That's all I have to say. "

" I loved this book. The end is particularly wonderful--if a little farfetched--but it has that classic Hardy sense of doom. "

" The audiobook narrated by Alan Rickman is an extremely enjoyable listen. His voice is perfectly suitable to the material. The material is bleak and morose, but the prose is beautiful. Sad story, wonderfully written. "

" This was a great classic, I really enjoyed the characters and the role each played in the story. "

" Published in 1895, I'm reading the populist Modern Library version c. 1950, picked up by my son Phil at a used bookshop for my birthday, because he knew Hardy is one of my favorites. "

" This book is not what you think. I expected a Heart of Darkness type subject (just from the title), but that's definitely not what this is. Still good, though. Actually, the depictions of the landscape were surprisingly moving (usually I sort of skip those parts). "

" A cliched, long-winded soap opera with predictable plot twists that never seems to end. Any possible literary merits this book might have are completely canceled out by the extent of how boring this story was. "

" I hated this book when I read it in high school. A decade later- I really enjoyed it and found it quite beautiful in places. "

" Although I remember liking it, I never read another Hardy novel since. Jude the Obscure remains unread. "

" Found some interesting new scenes this go-round that I hadn't noticed before... "

" i didn't think i'd ever be able to get into it, but i'd read review that said i should stick it out past the first 100-150 pages, and i'm glad i did. "

" I adore Hardy - any Hardy "

" Yeah, I'm morbid. So sue me. And it might have the plot of a soap opera, but it's a really gorgeously written soap opera. "

" Read this in highschool and loved it. Love the name Eustacia. "

" One of my favorite books of all time. Hardy's integration of the heath into the story line is amazing. I love the opening scene of this book. "

" One of my all time favorites since developing an interest in Thomas Hardy novels back in High School. "

" My opinion of this book might be a case of bad timing. I may try it again sometime. "

" Great depictions of the bucolic life of Hardy's fictional county in England. Hardy is a master story-teller of the self's perseverance and the confluence of external forces that would have otherwise. "

" Read this for GCSE, still sticks in my mind. I loved the descriptive nature of Hardy when discussing the Heath. If a book was to signify winter for me - this is it. "

" Why is it I can only remember Eustacia Vye from this novel? I must have been heavily medicated when I read it. "

" Old Eustacia Vye. She wasn't too sexy or anything, but even so you can't help wondering what a nun maybe thinks about when she reads old Eustacia. "

" Watched the movie in Saratoga, California and found it a good remembrance of the book read in High School. "