還鄉(xiāng)

暫缺《還鄉(xiāng)》簡介

　　Son of a local builder， Thomas Hardy （1840-1928） was born near Dorchester， Dorset， an agricultural dis- trict rich in tradition and folklore. At the age of 16， he started out to follow his father's profession and began his apprenticeship first in Dorchester and then in London. Yet his interest was in literature. In his early years， he wrote a good deal of verse. Afterwards he turned to prose fiction and produced as many as 15 novels， The Return of the Native （1878） being the first of his tragic novels. But towards the end of the 19th century， he gave up novel-writing and published five volumes of verse in addition to his great epic-drama 'The Dynasts' and two books of short stories. The scene of The Return of the Native is Egdon Heath which， as if bypassed by the pace of industriali- zation， still preserves an ancient charm of its own with the wilderness， the Roman highways and village bon- fires， and the traditional superstition of the local pcople. However， Egdon Heath is no paradise on earth. tts social structure is breaking apart. Visibly affected hy this irresistible tide of change， the gentry grow increasingly worried while the majority of the rustic heathmen are still contented with their lot， living in pcace and illusory happiness. The story begins with two women， Thomasin Yco-bright and Eustacia Vye， falling in love with Damon Wildeve who， for some reason， makes his choice in favour of the former. Eustacia eventually marries Thomasin's cousin Clym Yeobrigbt， a native returned from Paris， but it is not long before she is thoroughly disillusioned with her husband. Wilful， proud， and self-indulgent， she finds herself confronted with the dreadful prospect of living on the bleak heath with a man who is destined to move among rustic folk. Clym， oa the other hand， conaes back to stay in the village because he is tired of city life. Hc has， on his return， the intention of running a school， but he becomes a fHrze-cutter on account of his failing eyesight. For Eustacia， this further deterioratioa in social status on Clym's part is the last straw. A terrible row ariseswhen Ctym finds his wife unfaithful. This discovery also precipitates her flight with Wildeve， and both get drowned on a stormy night. If Eustacia achieves something of a tragic heroine， Clym is not elevated to the dignity ofa tragic hero. It is possible that the author deliberate- ly tries to weaken the tragic effect by making Clym an itinerant preacher. The Retwn of the Nalive is Hardy's firet mature novel. Like a magnificeat building， it attains integrity and balance in structure. It embodies the author's ar- tistic principle of writing as well as his philosophical view of life and nature， while giving a realistic descrip- Uon of the English pcasantry then in the process of de- cay. The few lines from John Keats' Endymion which we find at the beginning of the novel may serve as a warning to the reader that the story is not to be read simply for diversion. It might be Hardy's intention to record trulhfully what happened to the English rural community in the transitional period of the 19th-cen- tury industrialization. Xie Chulan