{"product_id":"2940012338259","title":"THE RETURN OF THE NATIVE","description":"BOOK ONE -- THE THREE WOMEN\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e1--A Face on Which Time Makes but Little Impression\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA Saturday afternoon in November was approaching the time of twilight,\u003cbr\u003eand the vast tract of unenclosed wild known as Egdon Heath embrowned\u003cbr\u003eitself moment by moment. Overhead the hollow stretch of whitish cloud\u003cbr\u003eshutting out the sky was as a tent which had the whole heath for its\u003cbr\u003efloor.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe heaven being spread with this pallid screen and the earth with\u003cbr\u003ethe darkest vegetation, their meeting-line at the horizon was clearly\u003cbr\u003emarked. In such contrast the heath wore the appearance of an instalment\u003cbr\u003eof night which had taken up its place before its astronomical hour was\u003cbr\u003ecome: darkness had to a great extent arrived hereon, while day stood\u003cbr\u003edistinct in the sky. Looking upwards, a furze-cutter would have been\u003cbr\u003einclined to continue work; looking down, he would have decided to\u003cbr\u003efinish his faggot and go home. The distant rims of the world and of the\u003cbr\u003efirmament seemed to be a division in time no less than a division in\u003cbr\u003ematter. The face of the heath by its mere complexion added half an\u003cbr\u003ehour to evening; it could in like manner retard the dawn, sadden noon,\u003cbr\u003eanticipate the frowning of storms scarcely generated, and intensify the\u003cbr\u003eopacity of a moonless midnight to a cause of shaking and dread.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn fact, precisely at this transitional point of its nightly roll into\u003cbr\u003edarkness the great and particular glory of the Egdon waste began, and\u003cbr\u003enobody could be said to understand the heath who had not been there at\u003cbr\u003esuch a time. It could best be felt when it could not clearly be seen,\u003cbr\u003eits complete effect and explanation lying in this and the succeeding\u003cbr\u003ehours before the next dawn; then, and only then, did it tell its true\u003cbr\u003etale. The spot was, indeed, a near relation of night, and when night\u003cbr\u003eshowed itself an apparent tendency to gravitate together could be\u003cbr\u003eperceived in its shades and the scene. The sombre stretch of rounds and\u003cbr\u003ehollows seemed to rise and meet the evening gloom in pure sympathy, the\u003cbr\u003eheath exhaling darkness as rapidly as the heavens precipitated it.\u003cbr\u003eAnd so the obscurity in the air and the obscurity in the land closed\u003cbr\u003etogether in a black fraternization towards which each advanced halfway.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe place became full of a watchful intentness now; for when other\u003cbr\u003ethings sank blooding to sleep the heath appeared slowly to awake and\u003cbr\u003elisten. Every night its Titanic form seemed to await something; but it\u003cbr\u003ehad waited thus, unmoved, during so many centuries, through the crises\u003cbr\u003eof so many things, that it could only be imagined to await one last\u003cbr\u003ecrisis--the final overthrow.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt was a spot which returned upon the memory of those who loved it\u003cbr\u003ewith an aspect of peculiar and kindly congruity. Smiling champaigns of\u003cbr\u003eflowers and fruit hardly do this, for they are permanently harmonious\u003cbr\u003eonly with an existence of better reputation as to its issues than the\u003cbr\u003epresent. Twilight combined with the scenery of Egdon Heath to evolve a\u003cbr\u003ething majestic without severity, impressive without showiness, emphatic\u003cbr\u003ein its admonitions, grand in its simplicity. The qualifications which\u003cbr\u003efrequently invest the facade of a prison with far more dignity than is\u003cbr\u003efound in the facade of a palace double its size lent to this heath a\u003cbr\u003esublimity in which spots renowned for beauty of the accepted kind are\u003cbr\u003eutterly wanting. Fair prospects wed happily with fair times; but alas,\u003cbr\u003eif times be not fair! Men have oftener suffered from, the mockery of\u003cbr\u003ea place too smiling for their reason than from the oppression of\u003cbr\u003esurroundings oversadly tinged. Haggard Egdon appealed to a subtler and\u003cbr\u003escarcer instinct, to a more recently learnt emotion, than that which\u003cbr\u003eresponds to the sort of beauty called charming and fair.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIndeed, it is a question if the exclusive reign of this orthodox beauty\u003cbr\u003eis not approaching its last quarter. The new Vale of Tempe may be a\u003cbr\u003egaunt waste in Thule; human souls may find themselves in closer and\u003cbr\u003ecloser harmony with external things wearing a sombreness distasteful to\u003cbr\u003eour race when it was young. The time seems near, if it has not actually\u003cbr\u003earrived, when the chastened sublimity of a moor, a sea, or a mountain\u003cbr\u003ewill be all of nature that is absolutely in keeping with the moods\u003cbr\u003eof the more thinking among mankind. And ultimately, to the commonest\u003cbr\u003etourist, spots like Iceland may become what the vineyards and myrtle\u003cbr\u003egardens of South Europe are to him now; and Heidelberg and Baden\u003cbr\u003ebe passed unheeded as he hastens from the Alps to the sand dunes of\u003cbr\u003eScheveningen.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe most thoroughgoing ascetic could feel that he had a natural right to\u003cbr\u003ewander on Egdon--he was keeping within the line of legitimate indulgence\u003cbr\u003ewhen he laid himself open to influences such as these.","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47168923533552,"sku":"2940012338259","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940012338259_p0.jpg?v=1763567658","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940012338259","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}