[Pocket Edition] World Literature Masterpieces Library (Volume 11) -- Return to Home

Author: (English) Thomas Hardy
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2006-07-01
Features: Return is a representative "Character and Environment Novel" created by the renowned British writer Thomas Hardy. Set against the Egdon Heath, a vast and timeless landscape in the southwest of England, the work depicts the tragic destinies of five young men and women. The female protagonist, Tess, is one of the most successfully portrayed female characters in modern British novels, while the setting of Egdon Heath is a masterpiece of landscape description. It marks an important milestone in the maturation of Hardy's novelistic art and is considered his best novel. Thomas Hardy is one of the Victorian writers with the most readers, a significant representative of critical realism in late 19th-century British novels, and the "father of modern poetry" for his bold exploration and pioneering in the 20th century. He pioneered many themes of 20th-century novels, and his "Character and Environment Novels" represent his highest achievement in realistic writing. As his novels are often set in the vast rural areas of Wessex in southwest England, he is also hailed as the most outstanding rural novelist in Britain.