FREE THE RETURN OF THE NATIVE PDF Thomas Hardy,Claire Seymour,Dr. Keith Carabine | 400 pages | 29 Jun 2005 | Wordsworth Editions Ltd | 9781853262388 | English | Herts, United Kingdom The Return of the Native: Summary | SparkNotes Looking for a movie the entire family The Return of the Native enjoy? Check out our picks for family friendly movies movies that transcend all ages. For even more, visit our Family Entertainment Guide. See the full list. Reddleman The Return of the Native Venn drives slowly across the heath, carrying a hidden passenger in the back of his van. When darkness falls, the country folk light bonfires on the hills, emphasizing the pagan spirit of the heath and its denizens. To celebrate my 1,th The Return of the Native for IMDb, I turn to a film based on the work of my favourite author. Despite his prominent position in the canon of English literature, Thomas Hardy has never really been a mainstay of the cinema in the way that, say Dickens or in recent years Jane Austen have been. Although there have been occasional excellent Hardy adaptations, such as Schlesinger's "Far from the Madding Crowd" or Polanski's "Tess", a number of his novels have never been the subject of a The Return of the Native film. I am not just talking about his more obscure works such as "Desperate Remedies" or "The Hand of Ethelberta"; there has never been a film based upon a novel as great as "The Mayor of Casterbridge", unless one counts Michael Winterbottom's eccentric "The Claim", which alters the plot considerably and transfers it to the American West. The plot is essentially a complex love pentagon. The fifth corner of the pentagon is Diggory Venn, a young man who was a rejected suitor for Thomasin's hand before her marriage. Damon and Eustacia were lovers before their respective marriages, and The Return of the Native cherish the hope that their former intimacy can be rekindled. Their spouses Clym and Thomasin are cousins. Hardy pays comparatively little attention to the Wildeves' marriage; the simple problem between them is that Damon, an innkeeper by trade, is a handsome scoundrel with a roving eve who finds it impossible to remain faithful to one woman. He analyses the Yeobrights' marriage, however, in greater detail. Clym, the returning native The Return of the Native the title, has been a successful diamond merchant based in Paris. Eustacia is a proud and independent young woman, intelligent if with little formal education, who dreams of seeing the wider world. Her main hope in marrying Clym was that he would return to Paris taking her with him. He, however, has tired of the diamond The Return of the Native and of the comfortable middle-class life he led in Paris. He believes that he has been called to some higher purpose in life and dreams of opening a local school where he can teach the local children of the remote heathland area in which the story is set. Eustacia hates the heathland, which she sees as bleak and forbidding, so is dismayed to realise that her husband is set upon spending the rest of his life there. It is her discontent, and Damon's faithlessness, which precipitate the story's final tragedy. The settings for Hardy's novels are The Return of the Native significant. The landscape The Return of the Native on such importance that it almost becomes a character in its own right, and this is particularly true of "The Return of the Native". It is therefore unfortunate that the makers of this film decided to shoot it on Exmoor rather than the Dorset heaths or "Egdon Heath"as Hardy called them. Geographically the two areas are not too far apart, but the landscapes we see here are more rugged and mountainous than anywhere in Dorset and more conventionally picturesque. I couldn't help feeling that if Eustacia had grown up in the beautiful countryside we see here she would The Return of the Native have wanted to leave. I felt that Claire Skinner was a bit weak as Thomasin although, to be fair to her, the sweet-natured Thomasin, overshadowed by her The Return of the Native of a husband and her more glamorous rival Eustacia, is not the strongest character in the novel. These, however, would be my only criticisms of the film, which is in all other respects a very worthy adaptation of a great novel, and follows its story fairly closely. There are, however, a few simplifications and alterations of Hardy's plot, notably the manner of Clym's mother's death. The rest of the cast are generally very good, and I was very taken with Ray Stevenson as the decent and idealistic Clym. I am rather surprised that I have not heard more of him since The real revelation for me, however- certainly when I first saw the film- was the performance of Catherine Zeta Jones as Eustacia. Apart from Tess, Eustacia is Hardy's greatest heroine, in my view greater even than Bathsheba Everdene. She is by temperament utterly unsuited to her sincere, kindly husband, and brings tragedy on him and on herself through her wild and impetuous behaviour, yet it is impossible for the reader not to feel some sympathy with her in a way in which we do not feel sympathy with, for example, her lover Wildeve. Like Clym, she can see all too clearly the darker side of life on Egdon Heath and the narrowness and ignorance of its denizens, some of whom quite The Return of the Native still practise witchcraft. Unlike him, she is unable to see the beauty of the area or to envisage any solution to its problems other than escaping from them. In Catherine Zeta was a striking young newcomer, strikingly and exotically beautiful, but generally regarded as most at home in light comedies like the "Darling Buds of May" television series in which she first made her name. She has, of course, gone on to become a major international star, although I have sometimes thought that Hollywood has used her too much as a comedienne and action heroine and has not done enough to find similarly demanding parts for her. This still remains my favourite of all her films. Looking for some great The Return of the Native picks? Check out some of the IMDb editors' favorites movies and shows to round out your Watchlist. Visit our What to Watch page. Sign In. Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends. Full Cast and Crew. Release Dates. Official Sites. Company Credits. Technical Specs. Plot Summary. Plot Keywords. Parents Guide. External Sites. User Reviews. User Ratings. External Reviews. Metacritic Reviews. Photo Gallery. Trailers and Videos. Crazy Credits. Alternate Versions. Rate This. Director: Jack Gold. Writers: Thomas Hardy novelRobert W. Lenski teleplay as Robert Lenski. Available on Amazon. Added to Watchlist. Catherine Zeta-Jones Movies. My rank of Catherine Zeta-Jones performances. My favorite literature Movies and TV Series. Catherine zeta Jones. Catherine Zeta-Jones Movie List. Use the HTML below. You must be a registered user to use the IMDb rating plugin. User Polls Scripted U. Nominated for 1 Golden Globe. Another 1 nomination. Damon Wildeve Ray Stevenson Clym Yeobright Steven Mackintosh Diggory Venn Claire Skinner Thomasin Paul Rogers Captain Vye Joan Plowright Yeobright Celia Imrie Susan Nunsuch Richard Avery Humphrey Peter Wight Timothy Jeremy Peters Sam Greg Saunders Charley John Boswall Granfer Cande William Waghorn Christian Cande Matthew Owens Edit Storyline Reddleman Diggory Venn drives slowly across the heath, carrying a hidden passenger in the back of his van. Genres: Drama. Edit Did You Know? Trivia Diggory Venn Steven Mackintosh works as a reddleman. He digs red ochre clayalso known as ferric oxide, to be used as a red dye to mark sheep. Goofs The story is set in When Susan Nunsuch is given a sixpence, a close-up of the coin shows it to bear the head of Elizabeth II presentnot that of Queen Victoria The Return of the Native (TV Movie ) - IMDb The novel opens with the action of the plot already underway. The reddleman Diggory Venn rides onto the heath with Thomasin Yeobright in the back of his wagon: her marriage to Damon Wildeve was delayed by an error in the marriage certificate, and Thomasin collapsed. We soon learn that Wildeve orchestrated the error himself. He is infatuated with Eustacia Vye, and is, at least The Return of the Native some extent, using Thomasin as a device to make Eustacia jealous. When Venn learns of the romance between Eustacia and Wildeve, his own love for Thomasin induces him to intervene on her behalf, which he will continue to do throughout the novel. But Venn's attempts to persuade Eustacia to allow Wildeve to marry Thomasin, like his own marriage proposal to Thomasin, are unsuccessful. Into this The Return of the Native tangle of lovers comes Clym Yeobright, Thomasin's cousin and the son of the strong-willed widow Mrs. Yeobright, who also serves as a guardian to Thomasin. Eustacia sees in the urbane Clym an escape from the hated heath. Even before she meets him, Eustacia convinces herself to fall in love with Clym, breaking off her romance with Wildeve, who then marries Thomasin. Chance and Eustacia's machinations bring Clym and her together, and they begin a courtship that will eventually end in their marriage, despite the strong objections of Mrs. Once Wildeve hears of Eustacia's marriage, he again begins to desire her, although he is already married to Thomasin. In marrying Eustacia, Clym distances himself from his mother.