The Return of the Native | Critical Overview
Before it was even published as a novel, The Return of the Native had already been rejected by Leslie Stephen, the editor of the prestigious Cornhill Magazine. Stephen objected to the hint of ex- tramarital sex and found it inappropriate for a family magazine. The serial ran in Belgravia, which, according to Desmond Hawkins, Hardy found to be an inferior publication.
The initial critical response to the novel was mixed. A review in Athenaeum deemed it “distinctly inferior to anything of his we have yet read.” The reviewer also took issue with the language...
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