Thomas Hardy

Name: The Return of the Native — Book 5, Chapter 1
Author: Thomas Hardy

The Return of the Native — Book 5… (1878)

Summary

“The Return of the Native — Book 5, Chapter 1”, published in 1878, is a work by Thomas Hardy. It explores elements such as Eustacia, Yeobright and Wildeve.

Quotes from The Return of the Native — Book 5… (Thomas Hardy)

Thomas Hardy, The Return of the Native — Book 5… (1878)

“ Eustacia turned, entered the house, and ascended to the front bedroom, where a shaded light was burning. In the bed lay Clym, pale, haggard, wide awake, tossing to one side and to the other, his eyes lit by a hot light, as if the fire in their pupils were burning up their substance.
"Is it you, Eustacia?" he said as she sat down.
"Yes, Clym. I have been down to the gate. The moon is shining beautifully, and there is not a leaf stirring." ”

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Source: Wikisource

Thomas Hardy, The Return of the Native — Book 5… (1878)

“ There escaped from Eustacia one of those shivering sighs which used to shake her like a pestilent blast. She had not yet told.
But Yeobright was too deeply absorbed in the ramblings incidental to his remorseful state to notice her. During his illness he had been continually talking thus. Despair had been added to his original grief by the unfortunate disclosure of the boy who had received the last words of Mrs. Yeobright--words too bitterly uttered in an hour of misapprehension. Then his distress had overwhelmed him, and he longed for death as a field labourer longs for the shade. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Thomas Hardy, The Return of the Native — Book 5… (1878)

“ Do you think I should remember all about my mother's death if I were out of my mind? No such good luck. Two months and a half, Thomasin, the last of her life, did my poor mother live alone, distracted and mourning because of me; yet she was unvisited by me, though I was living only six miles off. Two months and a half--seventy-five days did the sun rise and set upon her in that deserted state which a dog didn't deserve! Poor people who had nothing in common with her would have cared for her, and visited her had they known her sickness and loneliness ”

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Source: Wikisource

Thomas Hardy, The Return of the Native — Book 5… (1878)

“ What's the moon to a man like me? Let it shine--let anything be, so that I never see another day!...Eustacia, I don't know where to look--my thoughts go through me like swords. O, if any man wants to make himself immortal by painting a picture of wretchedness, let him come here! ”

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Source: Wikisource

Thomas Hardy, The Return of the Native — Book 5… (1878)

“ How much easier are hasty actions than speeches that will excuse them!"
"If he were only to die--" Wildeve murmured.
"Do not think of it! I would not buy hope of immunity by so cowardly a desire even if I hated him. Now I am going up to him again. Thomasin bade me tell you she would be down in a few minutes. Good-bye."
She returned, and Thomasin soon appeared. When she was seated in the gig with her husband, and the horse was turning to go off, Wildeve lifted his eyes to the bedroom windows. Looking from one of them he could discern a pale, tragic face watching him drive away. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Thomas Hardy, The Return of the Native — Book 5… (1878)

“ To sit by him hour after hour, and hear him reproach himself as being the cause of her death, and to know that I am the sinner, if any human being is at all, drives me into cold despair. I don't know what to do. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Thomas Hardy, The Return of the Native — Book 5… (1878)

“ No wonder she said to the child, 'You have seen a broken-hearted woman.' What a state she must have been brought to, to say that! and who can have done it but I? It is too dreadful to think of, and I wish I could be punished more heavily than I am. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Thomas Hardy, The Return of the Native — Book 5… (1878)

“ Thomasin said soothingly. "Consider what a one-sided way you have of looking at the matter, Clym. When she said that to the little boy you had not found her and taken her into your arms; and it might have been uttered in a moment of bitterness. It was rather like Aunt to say things in haste. She sometimes used to speak so to me. Though she did not come I am convinced that she thought of coming to see you. Do you suppose a man's mother could live two or three months without one forgiving thought? She forgave me ”

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Source: Wikisource

Thomas Hardy, The Return of the Native — Book 5… (1878)

“ Wildeve had come, and was waiting outside with his horse and gig.
"Send out and tell him I will be down in two minutes," said Thomasin.
"I will run down myself," said Eustacia.
She went down. Wildeve had alighted, and was standing before the horse's head when Eustacia opened the door. He did not turn for a moment, thinking the comer Thomasin. Then he looked, startled ever so little, and said one word: "Well?" ”

Thomas Hardy

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Quotes from The Return of the Native — Book 5… (Thomas Hardy)

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