The Return of the Native: Book Two

by Thomas Hardy
All Eustacia Vye wants is a chance to escape her dull village life, but her unhappy marriage to Clym Yeobright leads to tragedy. Read the full text here.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Book One, Book Two, Book Three, Book Four, Book Five, Book Six

Here are links to our lists for other works by Thomas Hardy: Tess of the d'Urbervilles, Mayor of Casterbridge, Jude the Obscure
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. peruse
    examine or consider with attention and in detail
    "They say, too, that Clym Yeobright is become a real perusing man, with the strangest notions about things. There, that's because he went to school early, such as the school was."
  2. natty
    marked by up-to-dateness in dress and manners
    "They'd look very natty, arm-in-crook together, and their best clothes on, whether or no, if he's at all the well-favoured fellow he used to be."
  3. reverie
    absentminded dreaming while awake
    While the furze-gatherers had desultorily conversed thus Eustacia's face gradually bent to the hearth in a profound reverie, her toe unconsciously tapping the dry turf which lay burning at her feet.
  4. sufficient
    of a quantity that can fulfill a need or requirement
    The scene of the daydream is sufficient for a pilgrimage at nineteen.
  5. rumination
    a calm, lengthy, intent consideration
    All that afternoon the expected arrival of the subject of Eustacia's ruminations created a bustle of preparation at Blooms-End.
  6. alacrity
    liveliness and eagerness
    Thomasin had been persuaded by her aunt, and by an instinctive impulse of loyalty towards her cousin Clym, to bestir herself on his account with an alacrity unusual in her during these most sorrowful days of her life.
  7. vehemently
    in a forceful manner
    Why don't people judge me by my acts? Now, look at me as I kneel here, picking up these apples—do I look like a lost woman?... I wish all good women were as good as I!" she added vehemently.
  8. profligate
    unrestrained by convention or morality
    But let me tell you one thing, Aunt: Mr. Wildeve is not a profligate man, any more than I am an improper woman. He has an unfortunate manner, and doesn't try to make people like him if they don't wish to do it of their own accord.
  9. proper
    marked by suitability or rightness or appropriateness
    I don't for a moment dispute that it is the most proper thing for you to marry him.
  10. geniality
    a disposition to be friendly and approachable
    Once it surprised her notions by remarking upon the friendliness and geniality written in the faces of the hills around.
  11. mendacity
    the tendency to be untruthful
    She glowed; remembering the mendacity of the imagination, she flagged; then she freshened; then she fired; then she cooled again. It was a cycle of aspects, produced by a cycle of visions.
  12. ramification
    an arrangement of branching parts
    It had as many ramifications as the Cretan labyrinth, as many fluctuations as the northern lights, as much colour as a parterre in June, and was as crowded with figures as a coronation.
  13. exemplary
    worthy of imitation
    She acted as the most exemplary might have acted, being so influenced; she took an airing twice or thrice a day upon the Egdon hills, and kept her eyes employed.
  14. coquettish
    like a flirtatious woman
    But Providence is nothing if not coquettish; and no sooner had Eustacia formed this resolve than the opportunity came which, while sought, had been entirely withholden.
  15. ennui
    the feeling of being bored by something tedious
    In an ordinary village or country town one can safely calculate that, either on Christmas day or the Sunday contiguous, any native home for the holidays, who has not through age or ennui lost the appetite for seeing and being seen, will turn up in some pew or other, shining with hope, self-consciousness, and new clothes.
  16. scrutinize
    look at critically or searchingly, or in minute detail
    And hither a comparatively recent settler like Eustacia may betake herself to scrutinize the person of a native son who left home before her advent upon the scene, and consider if the friendship of his parents be worth cultivating during his next absence in order to secure a knowledge of him on his next return.
  17. feasible
    capable of being done with means at hand
    But these tender schemes were not feasible among the scattered inhabitants of Egdon Heath.
  18. dissipate
    cause to separate and go in different directions
    To dissipate in some trifling measure her abiding sense of the murkiness of human life she went to the "linhay" or lean-to shed, which formed the root-store of their dwelling and abutted on the fuelhouse.
  19. hauteur
    overbearing pride with a superior manner toward inferiors
    "Yes," said Eustacia, with a little more hauteur. "You wanted to join hands with me in the ring, if I recollect?"
  20. minatory
    threatening or foreshadowing evil or tragic developments
    Eustacia then proceeded in her delivery, striking the sword against the staff or lance at the minatory phrases, in the orthodox mumming manner, and strutting up and down.
  21. elegant
    refined and tasteful in appearance, behavior, or style
    Her graceful gait, elegant figure, and dignified manner in general won the mummers to the opinion that they had gained by the exchange, if the newcomer were perfect in his part.
  22. pathos
    a quality that arouses emotions, especially pity or sorrow
    Again the instruments ended the tune; again they recommenced with as much fire and pathos as if it were the first strain.
  23. interminable
    tiresomely long; seemingly without end
    The air was now that one without any particular beginning, middle, or end, which perhaps, among all the dances which throng an inspired fiddler's fancy, best conveys the idea of the interminable—the celebrated "Devil's Dream."
  24. histrionic
    overly dramatic or emotional
    And fight they did; the issue of the combat being that the Valiant Soldier was slain by a preternaturally inadequate thrust from Eustacia, Jim, in his ardour for genuine histrionic art, coming down like a log upon the stone floor with force enough to dislocate his shoulder.
  25. venerable
    impressive by reason of age
    The Doctor now entered, restored the Knight by giving him a draught from the bottle which he carried, and the fight was again resumed, the Turk sinking by degrees until quite overcome—dying as hard in this venerable drama as he is said to do at the present day.
  26. antediluvian
    a very old person
    The number of their years may have adequately summed up Jared, Mahalaleel, and the rest of the antediluvians, but the age of a modern man is to be measured by the intensity of his history.
  27. idiosyncrasy
    a behavioral attribute peculiar to an individual
    The face was well shaped, even excellently. But the mind within was beginning to use it as a mere waste tablet whereon to trace its idiosyncrasies as they developed themselves.
  28. ignominiously
    in a dishonorable manner or to a dishonorable degree
    As is usual with bright natures, the deity that lies ignominiously chained within an ephemeral human carcase shone out of him like a ray.
  29. vagary
    an unexpected and inexplicable change in something
    But I can't be cured of my vagaries; them I plead guilty to.
  30. latency
    the state of being not yet evident or active
    "Only in search of events, Grandfather," she said, looking out of the window with that drowsy latency of manner which discovered so much force behind it whenever the trigger was pressed.
  31. churlish
    having a bad disposition; surly
    Brambles, though churlish when handled, are kindly shelter in early winter, being the latest of the deciduous bushes to lose their leaves.
  32. avowal
    a statement asserting the truth of something
    Venn felt much astonishment at this avowal, though he did not show it clearly; that exhibition may greet remarks which are one remove from expectation, but it is usually withheld in complicated cases of two removes and upwards.
  33. rubicund
    having a healthy reddish color
    "Who are you?" said Wildeve, discerning by the candle-light an obscure rubicundity of person in his companion.
  34. pique
    call forth, as an emotion, feeling, or response
    To believe that the letter was not the result of some momentary pique, to infer that she really gave him up to Thomasin, would have required previous knowledge of her transfiguration by that man's influence.
  35. renunciation
    the act of sacrificing or giving up or surrendering
    But, however promising Mrs. Yeobright's views of him might be as a candidate for her niece's hand, one condition was indispensable to the favour of Thomasin herself, and that was a renunciation of his present wild mode of life.
  36. misgiving
    uneasiness about the fitness of an action
    Some wearing apparel and other articles were collected anew for Thomasin, and remarks on domestic details were frequently made, so as to obscure any inner misgivings about her future as Wildeve's wife.
  37. prospect
    the possibility of future success
    I thought it might disturb you in your business, and that you might throw up your situation, or injure your prospects in some way because of it, so I said nothing.
  38. mortification
    strong feelings of embarrassment
    You don't know what a mortification anything of that sort is to a woman.
  39. resumption
    beginning again
    He did not add, as he might have added, that how he came to be in that neighbourhood was not by accident; that, since Wildeve's resumption of his right to Thomasin, Venn, with the thoroughness which was part of his character, had determined to see the end of the episode.
  40. linger
    remain present although waning or gradually dying
    The reddleman told the tale thoughtfully for there lingered upon his vision the changing colour of Wildeve, when Eustacia lifted the thick veil which had concealed her from recognition and looked calmly into his face.
Created on Tue Oct 27 21:48:35 EDT 2015 (updated Mon Apr 08 15:37:55 EDT 2019)

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