Egdon Heath

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Egdon Heath

Source of photograph: The Return of the Native in the Anniversary Edition of the Wessex Novels, 1920, Frontispiece.

Scanned image and text 2002 by Philip V. Allingham

[You may use this image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the photographer and (2) link your document to this URL.]

According to the editors, many of whose remarks seem based on Thomas Hardy's Wessex (1913) by Herman Lea,

Egdon Heath represents that vast expanse of moorland which extends, almost without a break, from Dorchester to Bournemouth, and is the scene of practically all the incidents in The Return of the Native.

Under the general name of "Egdon Heath," which has been given to the sombre scene of the styory, are united or typified heaths of various real names, to the number of at least a dozen. It is pleasant to dream that some spot in the extensive tract whose south-western quarter is here described, may be the heath of that traditionary King of Wessex — Lear.'

"To picture Egdon Heath as it appears in the story, "imagine it at the transitional point of its nightly roll into darkness," for "nobody could be said to understand the heath who had not been there at such a time."

Bibliography

Hardy, Thomas. The Return of the Native in The Writings of Thomas Hardy in Prose and Verse with Prefaces and Notes in Twenty-One Volumes. Vol. IV. New York & London: Harper & Brothers, 1920. This edition derives in part from previous editions and the photographs of 1912.

Last modified 19 April 2024