The Return of the
Native is a novel by Thomas Hardy.
Damon Wildeve, an engineer turned publican, is proprietor of "The
Quiet Woman" on Egdon Heath. He is engaged to the gentle Thomasin Yeobright but carrying an affair with Eustacia Vye, who lives with her grandfather at nearby Mistover Knap and whose desire in life is "to be loved to madness." Wildeve marries Thomasin.
Meanwhile, Clym Yeobright, Thomasin's cousin, tired of his life as a Parisian jeweller, returns to his native heath intending to become a schoolmaster. To his
mother's great disapproval he falls in love with and marries Eustacia, who married not not for love but primarily in the hope that Clym will take her away to more exciting city, preferably Paris. But Clym's sight fails and he is reduced to furze-cutting for a livelihood, a situation that drives his wife to exceeding despair. Eustacia renews association with Wildeve, and also unknowingly, she is responsible for Mrs Yeobright's death. She had a big quarrel with Clym which made her leave home. In desperation she drowns herself in Shadwater Weir, and Wildeve, trying to save her, also dies.
Some months later, Clym, remorseful over the deaths of his mother and Eustacia, becomes a public preacher. Thomasin marries Diggory Venn, a character who moves in and out at suitable times in the story.