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The Return of the Native
- Narrated by: Alan Rickman
- Length: 15 hrs and 12 mins
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The Return of the Native
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Summary
Earphones Award Winner (AudioFile Magazine)
Exclusively from Audible
Set on Egdon Heath, a fictional barren moor in Wessex, Eustacia Vye longs for the excitement of city life but is cut off from the world in her grandfather's lonely cottage. Clym Yeobright who has returned to the area to become a schoolmaster seems to offer everything she dreams of: passion, excitement and the opportunity to escape. However, Clym's ambitions are quite different from hers, and marriage only increases Eustacia's destructive restlessness, drawing others into a tangled web of deceit and unhappiness.
Considered a truly modern story due to its sexual politics and hindered desires it still holds relevance to audiences today. There is a tension between the symbolic setting of the heath and the modernity of the characters that makes the listener question our freedom to shape our lives as we wish. Are we always able to live our dreams?
Like George Eliot, Hardy was a Victorian realist whose novels and poetry were greatly influenced by Romanticism, especially the poet William Wordsworth. His critical thoughts on Victorian society can be seen throughout much of his work.
Narrator Biography
Multi-award winning actor and director Alan Rickman, famous for roles such as Severus Snape in the Harry Potter films and the Sherriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991), had a varied career that included performing on stage with the Royal Shakespeare Company in modern and classical theatre productions. In America, he gained recognition for his Broadway appearance in Les Liaisons Dangereuses (1985) and later his role in Die Hard (1988) made him internationally famous. Other notable performances included his 2001 return to the West End and Broadway in Noël Coward's Private Lives and Ibsen's John Gabriel Borkman in 2010. Rickman is most remembered for his roles in films such as Love Actually (2003) and Sweeney Todd (2007) as well as voicing Marvin the Paranoid Android in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005), and Absalom the Caterpillar in Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland (2010).
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Critic reviews
What listeners say about The Return of the Native
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Johnny M
- 17-11-14
Rickman revelation
Any additional comments?
Alan Rickman gives a stunning 'reading' of Hardy's Return of the Native. I know he's a great actor but his range of voices and emotions is entirely unexpected and of course like a true pro diction and delivery is faultless throughout. Definitely the best reading of a novel I've heard on Audible. If you're not a Hardy follower then be prepared for a slower pace than modern writing, but all the richer and more truthful for that. It's not my favourite Hardy (they're Tess and Casterbridge) hence the 4 stars for story, but nevertheless it approaches genius.
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23 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Roly
- 19-12-18
What a treat !
Hardy is so articulate and use of language sublime. This is a dramatic story of relationships - impulse and fate - lovers, parents and children with themes of class, nature and social change on the living stage of Egdon Heath.
The characters are vivid; both lead and lesser roles hold their idiosyncrasies and I’m struck by how honestly they express themselves, even the villains !
Rickman produces colourful, skilled and authentic accents - so all a bit of a treat......I’m a sucker for the Victorian novelists !
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 29-05-21
Perfect narration
Alan Rickman has the perfect voice for Hardy & he can sing! As normal with any Thomas Hardy novel, it’s not a barrel of laughs but well worth a listen.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Erica Collier
- 06-09-21
Fabulous story beautifully narrated
A classic Hardy novel, filled with rich characters, beautifully described locations and scenes and masterfully narrated by the wonderfully talented Alan Rickman.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- mags
- 26-02-22
Loved it!
Alan Rickman's narration superb, so lovely to listen to that distinctive voice again. Thoroughly recommend
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Cathy Osman
- 04-12-21
Wonderful story with superb narration
Another stunning story from Hardy. Sometimes reading (or listening to) Hardy is like watching a multi-vehicle car smash on the motorway in slow motion Alan Rickman’s narration is just sublime. Probably my favourite audio book!
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- dave
- 05-09-22
good story
Wonderful reading by the sorely missed Alan Rickman.
I Enjoyed the story too. Good work Hardy.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 16-04-23
Alan Rickman reads it so we’ll
Love the story and the narration. Alan Rickman does such a good job with Hardy’s beautiful descriptions of Egdon and it’s characters.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- pedersen.nyegaard@wanadoo.dk
- 21-03-15
Well written and well read
Alan Rickman gives a masterful (indeed, that's the word) reading of Thomas Hardy's well-crafted English prose. I can only think of two other readers who could rival this performance: Jim Norton (who reads James Joyce in a spine-tingling manner) and Jeremy Irons (who reads Nabokov with a befitting passion). Sadly, the sound quality could be much better - especially some of the chapter headings sound very odd.
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Karen Williams
- 02-05-15
Alan Rickman superb
Any additional comments?
This is Hardy, so obviously it's gruelling, relentlessly tragic, bleak and full of selfishness, but Hardy tries hard to show us that most of the characters are victims in their own way (he has to work quite hard when it comes to Eustacia). Alan Rickman's superb reading not only brings out the humour among the "rustics", but delivers the intimate dialogue between Clemm and Eustacia in a voice that honestly drips with desire - it stopped me in my tracks. So as a way to get to know classics of English literature, highly recommended.
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