Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy The Return of the Native. The Return of the Native opens with a chapter describing sundown on Egdon Heath, the stage upon which the drama of the novel unfolds. The heath is a "vast tract of unenclosed wild," a somber, windswept stretch of brown hills and valleys, virtually treeless, covered in briars and thorn- bushes: "the storm was its lover, and the wind was its friend." It is characterized by a "chastened sublimity"--impressive but not showy grandeur-- rather than any obvious aesthetic appeal. The heath is described as "a place perfectly accordant with man's nature. like man, slighted and enduring. It had a lonely face, suggesting tragical possibilities." It is an ancient space shaped by nature, seemingly impervious to the efforts of man. Along a road on the heath walks an old man, who soon encounters a "van"--a wagon--driven by a reddleman (we later learn that these characters are Captain Vyeand Diggory Venn, respectively). Fishing for gossip, the old man discovers from the recalcitrant reddleman that there is a young woman asleep in the back of his wagon. The two men, still nameless, part ways, and the reddleman proceeds through the darkening heath. Raising his eyes towards the highest point on the heath, Rainbarrow, the reddleman sees a woman, standing alone, profiled against the sky, "like an organic part of the entire motionless structure." The woman leaves Rainbarrow, and is replaced by a gathering of local men and women, who, in observance of local custom, are involved with building a huge bonfire on top of the barrow; all the villages for miles around do the same, and the night-sky is illuminated by the many torch-like fires. The locals-- including Timothy Fairway, Grandfer Cantle and his son Christian Cantle, and Susan Nonsuch--gossip in their clipped local dialect about the latest news: the marriage of Damon Wildeve and Thomasin Yeobright, which they presume to have occurred that same day. We learn that the girl's aunt, Mrs. Yeobright did not approve of the wedding, and that Clym Yeobright, Mrs. Yeobright's son, is returning from Paris in a few months for Christmas. The locals also notice that towards the end of the evening, the only fire that remains lit is a small one nearby at Mistover Knapp, where Eustacia Vye lives. The gossipers begin to dance and sing reels in the local custom, but are interrupted by reddleman encountered earlier, who asks for directions to Mrs. Yeobright's house, Blooms-End. Just minutes after the reddleman departs, Mrs. Yeobright arrives at the bonfire. Walking home from the bonfire, Olly Dowden has a conversation with Mrs. Yeobright in which they discuss Mrs. Yeobright's resistance to her niece's marriage, and eventual acquiescence. When they part ways, Mrs. Yeobright runs into the reddleman, whom she recognizes as Diggory Venn, the son of a local dairyman, and who reveals to her that Thomasin Yeobright is the woman asleep in the back of the wagon. It turns out that Thomasin and Damon Wildeve were not married that day: they had gone to Anglebury to be married, but there was a technical problem with the marriage license, and Thomasin, upset, had run away. Mrs. Yeobright believes that the family, and especially Thomasin, will be disgraced by this failed marriage; they go to Damon Wildeve's home, the Quiet Woman Inn, and insist that Damon go through with marrying Thomasin. He is somewhat casual about the whole affair, but eventually agrees. The serious discussion in interrupted by the entrance of the local farmers and workers, who sing wedding tunes in honor of the couple, believing them to be already married. After everyone finally leaves, Damon notices that the bonfire at Mistover Knapp is still burning, and resolves, "Yes, by Heaven, I must go to her." Commentary. It is fitting that the novel open with a chapter characterizing Egdon Heath. Throughout the novel, the rugged and unforgiving terrain of the heath plays a crucial role, not just in shaping the culture and attitudes of the local peasants but also in motivating the main characters and even in shaping the outcomes of crucial events. The residents of the heath might imagine themselves to have civilized their native terrain, but in truth the heath remains wild, with a character of its own that asserts its will over its human denizens. Mrs. Yeobright dies of exposure due to the ruggedness of the heath; Damon Wildeve and Eustacia Vye are drowned during one of the frequent storms that sweep the heath. More subtly, all of the characters seem defined, emotionally and even physically, by their relationships to the heath. The heath is named before any of the characters are: indeed, in the second chapter, Diggory Venn and Captain Vye remain anonymous, merely outgrowths of the heath (especially the nomadic Diggory, who, dyed entirely red, seems an incarnation of the savage heath itself). And the reader soon realizes that the unnamed woman who Diggory sees standing on Rainbarrow in the second chapter, looking like "an organic part" of the great mound, is in fact Eustacia Vye, who, despite her loathing for the heath, nonetheless embodies or symbolizes--by virtue of her powerful, tempestuous passions and her dark beauty--the untameable nighttime heath. But even while the heath as a physical object is described as "inviolate," untouchable and unalterable by man, as a symbol it is highly pliable: it becomes what the various characters want to make of it. It is ugly for Eustacia, beautiful for Clym Yeobright, comforting for Thomasin Yeobright, and home for Diggory Venn. And it is described differently by the narrator at different times, depending on the perspective of the character being focused on; it is not just the attitudes of the characters that change, but, in the narrator's perspective, the entire heath itself that seems changeable. It is both "an installment of night" and an object of delicate, intricate beauty. This may be seen as an instance of the unreliability of the narrator, but it may also be seen as proof of the heath's evasion of all simple descriptions: it is so much greater than civilized man that it defies his attempts at limiting and defining it. In this first section, too, we are introduced to the supporting cast of the novel, the working-class locals who live on the heath. When The Return of the Native was published, Thomas Hardy was criticized by many reviewers for the unnatural language he puts into the mouths of these uneducated locals. This criticism deeply upset Hardy, who placed great importance in a realistic depiction of local life, custom and language. A native returning to his own birthplace of Dorchester, the area in England on which the fictional Wessex is based, Hardy wanted to recapture the feel of the country in his novels. Thus he spends a good deal of time in these opening pages describing the locals, who seem more pagan than Christian in their attitudes: they never attend church, celebrate a pagan custom by lighting bonfires to ward off the oncoming winter, and enjoy dancing and drinking above all else. Paganism in general is a recurrent theme throughout the novel. It should not be ignored that Rainbarrow itself is a barrow--an artificial burial mound raised by the ancient pagan Celtic tribes--that has become a part of the landscape. There are frequent references made throughout not just to native British paganism but to Roman and Greek influences: the bonfire, for instance, is said to be "Promethean." Eustacia Vye, especially, is described as some kind of goddess or demigoddess, a pagan "Queen of the Night," and it is on Rainbarrow that she is first discerned, albeit anonymously. To a large extent, this novel uses the ancient, pagan world--unchecked by Christianity and civilization--as its psychological and physical setting. The Return of the Native. The date at which the following events are assumed to have occurred may be set down as between 1840 and 1850, when the old watering-place herein called "Budmouth" still retained sufficient afterglow from its Georgian gaiety and prestige to lend it an absorbing attractiveness to the romantic and imaginative soul of a lonely dweller inland. Under the general name of "Egdon Heath," which has been given to the sombre scene of the story, are united or typified heaths of various real names, to the number of at least a dozen; these being virtually one in character and aspect, though their original unity, or partial unity, is now somewhat disguised by intrusive strips and slices brought under the plough with varying degrees of success, or planted to woodland. It is pleasant to dream that some spot in the extensive tract whose south-western quarter is here described, may be the heath of that traditionary King of Wessex�Lear. Postscript. To prevent disappointment to searchers for scenery it should be added that though the action of the narrative is supposed to proceed in the central and most secluded part of the heaths united into one whole, as above described, certain topographical features resembling those delineated really lie on the margin of the waste, several miles to the westward of the centre. In some other respects also there has been a bringing together of scattered characteristics. The first edition of this novel was published in three volumes in 1878. This novel revolves around five people mainly, and the Egdon Heath. Clym, the native who returns to Egdon changes the life of Mrs. Yeobright, Eustacia, Thomasin, Mr, Wildeve and his own. Eustacia, the heroine and Clym are two contrasting characters beautifully sketched by the author. But I personally liked Mr. Venn, the reddleman the most, maybe because of his presence at the right places, at the right times. Even the Rustics play an important part in this novel. Hardy's use of a barren heath and his art of characterisation are truly remarkable.--Submitted by renderings2u. Fan of this book? Help us introduce it to others by writing a better introduction for it. It's quick and easy, click here. Recent Forum Posts on The Return of the Native. Eustacia Vye vs Emma Bovary. I have read online and in books that some critics have compared Eustacia Vye to Emma Bovary from Madame Bovary. I took exception to this. Eustacia Vye has a lot of spark. In my view she is rarely mean to anyone; she is just proud and stands up for herself. I sympathised with Emma Bovary, but I thought she was silly and irresponsible, although she was not the most rotten character in the book by a long way. Posted By kev67 at Fri 31 Aug 2018, 7:07 PM in The Return of the Native || 0 Replies. What do you understand a heath to be? What do you regard as a heath. I regard it as rabbit country, with poor soil and lots of gorse bushes everywhere. Something like this: http://www.norfolkbirds.com/photos/sites/kelling%20heath_.JPG That is how it seemed to me to be described in the book. You cannot grow crops on it because the soil is too poor. Sounds like you can't even graze sheep on it because there is not actually much grass. I do not think a heath is the same as a moor because it need not be high up or particularly hilly. I don't think the land was very productive, economically speaking. Cutting furze or turf for fuel does not sound very remunerative. I wondered whether anyone owned those heath-cropper ponies or whether they were wild. What do they eat? If you cannot graze sheep on the land, then how can ponies survive? I watched a YouTube promo clip on the TV series of Return of the Native with Catherine Zeta Jones. One thing that bothers me about it is that it was filmed on Exmoor. Exmoor is not a heath, it's a moor. Posted By kev67 at Sat 25 Aug 2018, 11:56 PM in The Return of the Native || 14 Replies. Arcane words and allusions. Reading this book reminds me of a TV show from my youth called Call My Bluff, in which two teams of three read out definitions of little known English words. Two of the definitions were false and one true. In the latest chapter I read were skein, captious and contumely. Then there are all the references to the bible and to classical mythology. I suppose Victorian readers would have understood the allusions better than today's. After reading a chapter I have to read a page of notes on all the references. Tess of the d'Urbervilles was like that, but from memory, The Woodlanders and Far From the Madding Crowd weren't too bad. Posted By kev67 at Sat 14 Jul 2018, 12:28 AM in The Return of the Native || 1 Reply. Eustacia's death. I have just re-read Return of the Native, and a very fine book it is and couldn�t have been written by anyone else. SPOILER ALERT However I wasn�t clear whether Eustacia commits suicide or just falls into the weir. I know she�s been suicidal, but we�ve been told she�s got over it. I know she�s got ready to flee and then realised (silly soul) that she hasn�t any money. But she isn't described, I thought, as more desperate than she has been. I knew she was due to drown. But we didn�t have any description of her falling in. On the other hand, the whole book is a stream of repeated unfortunate accidents from when Wildeve finds he�s got the wrong licence onwards. (I found myself screaming internally �No, Christian, don�t do it!). It would be in keeping with everyone�s bad luck if she just slipped. Or is Hardy leaving it deliberately ambiguous. Or is suicide, like sex, something the Victorian novel writer just couldn�t describe? Posted By Jackson Richardson at Sat 4 Jun 2016, 12:48 PM in The Return of the Native || 5 Replies. Return of the Native-Hardy. Does anyone know a lot about this book? I have a project and I could use some help. Thanks. Posted By cheergirl37 at Mon 2 Mar 2009, 3:05 PM in The Return of the Native || 0 Replies. The return of the native. This was a fine book. I read it twice. I like Eustacia and Wildeve, but I also like Clym. I think that all the characters were were well portrayted and I enjoyed reading the book. It is probably one of the best Hardy books. what do you think of it? Posted By downing at Wed 2 Aug 2006, 5:28 PM in The Return of the Native || 16 Replies. The Return of the Native. Amidst the fireworks and celebrations of Guy Fawkes Night, a covered wagon winds its way along the dark country heath land. Hidden at the back is a young woman who is running away from a thwarted marriage ceremony with the local innkeeper. The driver of the wagon, a young herdsman, is secretly in love with her but is so devoted that he vows to help her reunite with her useless lover. The opening scenes of Thomas Hardy's sixth novel The Return of the Native, form the backdrop to this story of a profoundly flawed woman and the men who fall in love with her. The book itself had a controversial debut, something which greeted many of Hardy's novels at that time. It first appeared in serial form in 1878 in the Belgravia magazine, which was notorious for its risqué and sensational content. The radical themes explored by Hardy in the novel prevented many publishers from daring to accept it. However, today it is considered one of the finest Victorian novels and one that marks a great shift in the moral universe of the time. Set in the famous, fictional Hardy country Wessex, The Return of the Native also takes place here in this imaginary county of his own creation. This novel's action is focused in Egdon Heath in Wessex, and occurs across the time frame of exactly one year and one day. Probably for the first time in English literary history, a book was written that takes a frank and objective look at concepts like illicit physical and romantic relationships, the conflict between human impulse and societal restraint and the tragedy that awaits those who fly in the face of convention. For Hardy, these were enduring themes that he explored time and again, despite the moral outrage that greeted most of his novels. Unforgettable characters like Diggory Venn, the “reddleman” who rescues his beloved Thomasin Yeobright from a failed elopement, the haughty black haired beauty Eustacia Vye, the bitter and superstitious Susan Nunsuch and many more make this a truly panoramic novel. The novel is also remarkable for its deep roots in country customs, folklore and legends which give it a matchless feel of the atmosphere and authenticity. Hardy's scrupulous plotting, his compassion and humanity, his own experiences of returning to his native Brockhampton after facing the anger of the moral brigade in London all combine to make this book a most valuable experience. The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy [A Review] One November 5th in 1840’s rural England, several bonfires are lit across the undulating hills and valleys of Egdon Heath to mark Guy Fawkes. One burning particularly impressively is Eustacia Vye’s bonfire. Eustacia grew up in a nearby town but, following the deaths of her parents, has since had to live on her grandfather’s estate on the heath. She hates the slow, quiet life on the heath and yearns for the glamour and sophistication of big cities of London and Paris. Locals are unsure what to make of Eustacia; intelligent, vain, pretentious, some even suspect her of being a witch. Her motive for her impressive bonfire is certainly witchy; she hopes it will summon her former lover. Eustacia Vye was the raw material of a divinity. On Olympus she would have done well with a little preparation. She had the passions and instincts which make a model goddess, that is, those which make not quite a model woman. But celestial imperiousness, love, wrath and fervour had proved to be somewhat thrown away on netherward Egdon. Her power was limited and the consciousness of this limitation had biased her development. Egdon was her Hades, and since coming there she had imbibed much of what was dark in its tone, though inwardly and eternally unreconciled thereto. Her appearance accorded well with this smouldering rebelliousness, and the shady splendour of her beauty was the real surface of the sad and stifled warmth within her. A true Tartarean dignity sat upon her brow, and not factiously or with marks of constraint, for it had grown in her with years. He duly arrives. Damon Wildeve was once Eustacia’s lover before she turned her back on him. He has since become engaged to marry another woman. The prospect of losing Wildeve forever has the effect of rekindling Eustacia’s interest in him and, when a bureaucratic bungle postpones the wedding, she decides to consider Wildeve one last time. But Wildeve is a failed engineer who now keeps a local inn. The prospect that he may be able to provide the life she craves is not good and he is a little below her social class. For Wildeve, his fiancé Thomasin Yeobright is a pleasant and good-natured girl from a wealthy family but she has none of the fire of raven-haired Eustacia to excite him. Wildeve even suggests to Eustacia that they could run off together to America. Nevertheless, Eustacia decides to let Wildeve go. ‘This is the pleasure I have won by my trouble,’ she whispered bitterly, half to herself. ‘Why did I try to recall you? Damon, a strange warring takes place in my mind occasionally. I think when I become calm after your woundings, “Do I embrace a cloud of common fog after all?” You are a chameleon, and now you are at your worst colour. Go home, or I shall hate you!’ The postponement of Wildeve and Thomasin’s wedding creates other intrigues elsewhere too. Thomasin’s aunt, Mrs Yeobright, on whom she depends, was never in favour of the union. But she now fears the scandal of the postponement, or even a cancellation, is much worse than the prospect of the original wedding. It is at this point, troubled by how she might reunite the couple, that she is approached by Diggory Venn, who makes an alternative proposal for Thomasin’s hand. Venn is a reddleman; a tradesman of red ochre, a pigment used to mark sheep. His trade means that his skin and clothes are stained red. Despite his devilish appearance, he is a former sweetheart of Thomasin’s and selflessly cares for her best interests even at the expense of his own. Though he proposed to her two years earlier, he was rejected by Thomasin as his feelings were unrequited even if the difference in their respective social status was not too big a gap to bridge. He now remakes his offer of marriage to Thomasin in an effort to spare her the possibility of scandal. Mrs Yeobright does not like the prospect of her niece marrying a reddleman any more than marrying an innkeeper, but she sees the advantage of using a rival proposal to get Wildeve to heel which he soon does. Venn, though happy for Thomasin if she is, does not trust Wildeve to stay faithful and decides to stay on the heath, even at the expense of his trade, so that he can keep an eye on Eustacia and Wildeve. Secret meetings between both lovers and rivals, under the cover of night on the rugged heath, are the key setting of the novel. In the midst of these intrigues, Clym Yeobright, Mrs Yeobright’s son, returns to the Heath. Clym has fashioned a successful career as a jewellery merchant in Paris and is the returning native of the novel’s title. Eager to know more of him, Eustacia schemes to arrange a meeting and the two begin falling in love. Though at first, only the reader appreciates that they are falling in love with their ideas of each other rather than the reality. A young and clever man was coming into that lonely heath from, of all contrasting places in the world, Paris. It was like a man coming from heaven. She had undoubtedly begun to love him. She loved him partly because he was exceptional in this scene, partly because she had from the first instinctively determined to love him, chiefly because she was in desperate need of loving somebody. Eustacia hopes that Clym will whisk her away to a life of glamour and luxury in Paris. Clym, though, has no intention of ever leaving the Heath again. He is weary of the phoniness and materialism of that life and perhaps feels guilty at the privileges his high birth has afforded him. Clym’s ambition is to use his family’s wealth to found a school where he will teach. Though well-meaning, Clym has no credentials, little knowledge, nor any appreciation of whether the education he hopes to provide will be of any practical use to rural children on the heath. His idea of Eustacia as a woman of simple inclinations, an ideal partner for his new life, fuelled by the ignorant suspicion held by locals that she is a witch, is just as deluded as her idea of his cosmopolitanism. Was Yeobright’s mind well-proportioned? No. A well-proportioned mind is one which shows no particular bias; one of which we may safely say that it will never cause its owner to be confined as a madman, tortured as a heretic, or crucified as a blasphemer. Also, on the other hand, that it will never cause him to be applauded as a prophet, revered as a priest, or exalted as a king. Its usual blessings are happiness and mediocrity. Take all the varying hates felt by Eustacia Vye towards the heath, and translate them into loves, and you have the heart of Clym. He gazed upon the wide prospect as he walked, and was glad. Clym’s mother is appalled by both her son’s future ambitions and by his choice of wife. Misunderstandings become arguments which become irreconcilable differences between Eustacia and Mrs Yeobright and drive a wedge between Clym and his mother. Over the course of a year, from one Guy Fawkes to the next, marriages become strained, the fortunes of some rise while others fall and jealousies, rivalries and tempting prospects invite tragedy. The Return of the Native is the second Thomas Hardy novel I have read and, while I did not enjoy it nearly as much as I enjoyed Far From the Madding Crowd , it still provides plenty of material for thought and discussion. The most obvious is a comparison between the two novel’s respective heroines. As tempting as it is in the twenty-first century to celebrate Far From the Madding Crowd’s Bathsheba as a strong, independent, wilful and ambitious young woman; The Return of the Native’s Eustacia reminds us that, for the 19th century, Bathsheba has had the luxury of fulfilling these traits due to the good fortune of a timely inheritance. Eustacia, in contrast, is trapped, unfulfilled and powerless. That being said, they are not of the same character. If Eustacia were to come into an inheritance she would most likely spend it very differently; escaping rural England for life in Paris, such are her superficial ambitions. Another aspect worth contemplating is what we today would call the ‘complexity’ of the characters. Particularly Venn and Wildeve. The reader is tempted to regard Wildeve as a scoundrel for his wavering and duplicitousness, but his loyalty to Eustacia shows the sort of man he could be in different circumstances. Meanwhile, Venn’s selfless determination to protect Thomasin’s happiness appears to do him credit though the lengths he goes to – meddling in another couple’s relationship, taking pleasure in defeating his rival – suggests otherwise. Like Far From the Madding Crowd (and I suspect, most of Hardy’s work), the blurring of social lines as material fortunes change is a theme here as well. With the blurring of the social strata comes the blurring of the appropriateness of chivalry as shown by the actions of Venn and Wildeve towards another man’s wife, or towards a woman who is not his wife, respectively. Also like elsewhere, Hardy shows a lot of consideration for all the intricacies of the problems created by the situation the characters find themselves in. Their traits and motivations, possibly actions and outcomes are far more complex than I can describe here and add richness to the story. Another aspect of this novel that readers cannot fail to notice is that it is saturated with references – Biblical, classical and pagan; religious, historical and mythological. In her introduction to this edition, Penny Boumelha suggests that the aim of this metafictional device is to elevate the story and its characters. With his frequent use of references, Hardy is suggesting that powerful stories are not reserved only for heroes, kings and deities but also for ordinary people in rural backwaters. That being said, because of its setting, The Return of the Native does not offer the insight into the lives of the rural working class that Far From the Madding Crowd does. A final point I want to raise comes from an appendix to this edition (it is not clear who the author of it is). The point being that it is unclear what the context for The Return of the Native is. Though first published in 1878, the novel is set in the 1840’s, during Hardy’s childhood, and the conflict between a man and his mother over a woman not approved of is somewhat unique in Hardy’s fiction. There is some speculation that this aspect is drawn from Hardy’s own life experiences but the details which may prove it are unknown and may never be known. The Return of the Native may not be as entertaining as Far From the Madding Crowd. Its flawed characters may not provide the reader the satisfaction of hoping for an outcome that will be best for all. And its tragic heroine invites comparisons to Madame Bovary and Anna Karenina . But Hardy continues to give plenty of food for thought; on the lack of self-determination and fulfillment for women, the difficulties of choosing the right partner, the futility of thinking people will change and the poor correlation between goodness and material success. The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy. First published serially between January and December of 1878 in the sensationalistic monthly London magazine “Belgravia”, Thomas Hardy’s “The Return of the Native” is the author’s sixth published novel. Set in Egdon Heath, an area of Thomas Hardy’s fictionalized Wessex known for the thorny evergreen shrubs, called furze or gorse, which are cut there by its residents for fuel. When the story begins, on Guy Fawkes Night, we find Diggory Venn, a merchant of the red mineral called reddle which farmers use to mark their sheep, giving aid to Thomasin Yeobright, whom he is in love with but has unsuccessfully wooed over the preceding two years. Diggory is helping Thomasin, who is in distress having left town with Damon Wildeve under the false promise of matrimony, return home to her aunt, Mrs. Yeobright. Damon has rebuffed Thomasin in favor of the beautiful young Eustacia Vye. However when Mrs. Yeobright’s son Clym, a successful diamond merchant, returns from Paris, Eustacia loses interest in Damon, seeing a relationship with Clym as an opportunity to escape the Heath in favor of a more glamorous and exciting locale. A classically modern novel, “The Return of the Native” presents a world of people struggling between their unfulfilled desires and the expectations of society. My thoughts: Thomas Hardy is one of my favourite authors and I throughly enjoyed The Return of the Native, which I think is one of his best books. I loved the setting on Eldon Heath, which is based on the small heath by Hardy’s childhood home, but is much larger. The ancient round barrows named Rainbarrows, and Rushy Pond, which lie immediately behind Hardy’s childhood home, form the centre of the fictional heath. Hardy’s description of it is detailed, poetically lyrical and beautiful. It’s a dramatic and tragic love story. It has a large cast of characters, with lovers who change their affections throughout the novel and it’s full of intrigue with striking moonlit scenes, disputes, heated quarrels and misunderstandings, along with rustic characters and traditional celebrations, for example Guy Fawkes night, May Day and a Mummers’ play at Christmas. It was first published in 1878 in three volumes with revisions at later dates. The revision I read was published in 1912. Hardy’s Preface establishes that the events described took place between 1840 and 1850. ‘Egdon Heath’ is a combination of various heaths that were later ploughed or planted to woodland. He liked to think of it as the ‘heath of that traditionary King of Wessex – Lear’. The Return of the Native is a complex novel, shocking to its contemporary public because of its depiction of passionate and illicit sexual relationships (tame by today’s standards). It begins with a description of Egdon Heath, a sombre isolated place, loved by some and hated by others, some regarding it as a prison. Along the ancient highway that crossed the heath the solitary figure of an old man sees a cart ahead of him in the long dry road. Both the driver, who walked beside it, and the cart, were completely red – he was a reddleman, who supplied farmers with redding for their sheep. He plays an important part in the novel, appearing at significant times and places to great effect on the course of events. It’s not a book to read quickly and it transported me back to a time that ceased to exist before I was born, where time moved more slowly, ruled by the seasons and the weather, and with a clearly defined social hierarchy. And yet, I was surprised to find that youngsters were scribbling graffiti on ‘every gatepost and barn’s doors’, writing ‘some bad word or other’ so that a woman can hardly pass for shame some time.’ Learning to write and sending children to school was blamed: ’Ah, there’s too much of that sending to school these days! It only does harm. … If they’d never been taught how to write they wouldn’t have been able to scribble such villainy. Their fathers couldn’t do it, and the country was all the better for it.’ (Page 108)8. Quite simply – I loved it. It’s a love story full of depth, atmosphere and passion, but also of tragedy and a mix of darkness and light.