Please post your thoughts and questions on The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy. You can find the online copy here.
Book Club Procedures
Please post your thoughts and questions on The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy. You can find the online copy here.
Book Club Procedures
Last edited by Scheherazade; 10-17-2005 at 07:42 AM.
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"It is not that I am mad; it is only that my head is different from yours.”
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I love the Return of the Native and consider it one of Hardy's best novels. I have read it about 6 times, and plan to read it again, later in October, anyhow, so the result of the bookclub probably won't matter much for me, except that if people post about it, so will I, and it would be fun to share. I find all of his works haunting, but this one most of all, since he refers to the superstitions of the country folk, the character of Eustacia and other Pagan things! And as most of it takes place in Autumn, it is a fitting book to read this time of year and I hope it becomes the book of the month read for us all.
i have also read this book but its been awhile so i will try to reread it. Has anyone seen the movie with Catherine Zeta-Jones in it? It was one of her first movies.
Trying to forget someone you love is like trying to remember someone you have never met.
Yes, I have seen the movie, and own the DVD, and watch it often...in fact, I make it a habit to watch it every late October! It is a condensed version, but very well done, very well acted, and bleak scenery which really sets the whole tone of the story. She played Eustacia perfectly, and after watching this, I could actually feel for Eustacia...more on that, later, if we end up reading and discussing it!
Originally Posted by Lady19thC
Yes, I saw C.Z. Jones in that movie and I knew she was going to be a star!!!
I really want to read "Return of the Native" but just didn't get the chance.
For the triumph of evil, all it takes is for a few good men to do nothing.
Sir Edmund Burke
I've never read the book, and it's on my booklist.I've read the summary, so I'll defnitely be reading it this October. (I'm currently reading on something else.)
"...You can say anything you want, yessir, but it's the words that sing, they soar and descend.... I bow to them... I love them, I cling to them, I run them down. I bite into them, I melt them down.... I love words so much... The unexpected ones....The ones I wait for greedily or stalk until, suddenly, they drop..." -Pablo Neruda
I am officially starting to read TROTN today!
Just wanted you to know!
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"It is not that I am mad; it is only that my head is different from yours.”
~
Some extremely memorable descriptionary passages. Even when Hardy is writing about some supposedly mundane task, you can be pretty sure that he will add something unique, a clever twist, that will make reading through it not a chore but as pleasurable as the more fast-paced passages. There isn't much that happens in the way of full-blown action, yet Hardy manages to pack the book with enough intrigue and tension that it reads more like a John Grisham meleodrama than a relatively dry social satire.
I remember reading into the wee hours of the morning, propped on a uncomfortable chair and my legs getting numb from being still for too long. And during that read I ran the whole gamut of emotions, from extreme indigination to out-right fury at Eustacia's antics whilst chuckling at the brilliant way Hardy manages to imbue irony in his prose.
Last edited by EAP; 10-09-2005 at 07:52 AM.
I have never read this and just recently really got turned on to Hardy's poetry... will definately check this out!
It's too hard, there's too many words. At least in the first 2 chapters.
Do, or do not. There is no try. - Yoda
Papayahed, it's a slow start but once you get past the first two chapters I think you'll really enjoy it.
Should be reading it shortly, got another book to finish first
I have a plan: attack!
I'll take your word for it and keep trudging along. I don't want to offend anyone but if next months book is by and englishman I am not reading it!!Papayahed, it's a slow start but once you get past the first two chapters I think you'll really enjoy it.
Do, or do not. There is no try. - Yoda
I agree with Papaya that it is a veeeeerrrryyyyy slow start! read the first three chapters and yawned all the way through... I think that is Hardy's problem in general; he tries so hard to impress and be 'literary' that his readers get lost in the books.
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"It is not that I am mad; it is only that my head is different from yours.”
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Honest, it'll get better!
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