Return of the Native

Rating:
Summary: When English was a beautiful, evocative language
Review: This is one of the great ones. Give yourself time and space to enjoy sentences of poetic beauty, read by one of the greatest voices of our time. Other reviewers have covered the plot, which is engaging enough, but my chief enjoyment was in the style of writing. Hardy's words paint landscapes of the soul as well as the countryside, and intertwine them within unforgetable characters of depth and spirit. The book is long, yet there is great economy of style. Hardy arranges his phrases with the care of a classical composer, and evokes richer feelings with more grace and fewer words than most of our glib and pithy authors today. I found myself wanting to buy a thesaurus for most modern authors, and wishing that Alan Rickman would record another Thomas Hardy novel.

Rating:
Summary: When English was a beautiful, evocative language
Review: This is one of the great ones. Give yourself time and space to enjoy sentences of poetic beauty, read by one of the greatest voices of our time. Other reviewers have covered the plot, which is engaging enough, but my chief enjoyment was in the style of writing. Hardy's words paint landscapes of the soul as well as the countryside, and intertwine them within unforgetable characters of depth and spirit. The book is long, yet there is great economy of style. Hardy arranges his phrases with the care of a classical composer, and evokes richer feelings with more grace and fewer words than most of our glib and pithy authors today. I found myself wanting to buy a thesaurus for most modern authors, and wishing that Alan Rickman would record another Thomas Hardy novel.