The Return of the Native

Book excerpt: Damon Wildeve, a local innkeeper known for his fickleness is preoccupied with Eustacia Vye, an exotically beautiful young woman who broke up with him when Clym, a successful diamond merchant, returned from Paris to his native Egdon Heath. Eustacia sees him as a way to escape the hated heath and begin a grander, richer existence in a glamorous new location. When he sees that Eustacia is lost to him, Wildeve marries Thomasin Yeobright, who gives birth to a daughter. After realizing that Clym won't fulfill her dreams, Eustacia becomes desperate, but another opportunity shows up. Wildeve has unexpectedly inherited a large sum of money, and is now in a better position to fulfill Eustacia's hopes, but he now has a wife and a child.