The Return of the Native is Thomas Hardy's

Thomas Hardy

Thomas Hardy, OM was an English novelist and poet. While his works typically belong to the Naturalism movement, several poems display elements of the previous Romantic and Enlightenment periods of literature, such as his fascination with the supernatural.While he regarded himself primarily as a...

 sixth published novel. It first appeared in the magazine Belgravia

Belgravia (magazine)

Belgravia was a monthly London illustrated literary magazine of the late 19th century that was founded by Mary Elizabeth Braddon.-History:...

, a publication known for its sensationalism, and was presented in twelve monthly installments from January to December 1878. Due to the novel's controversial themes, Hardy had some difficulty finding a publisher; reviews, however, though somewhat mixed, were generally positive. In the twentieth century, The Return of the Native became one of Hardy's most popular novels.
The novel takes place entirely in the environs of Egdon Heath

Egdon Heath

Egdon Heath is a fictitious area of Thomas Hardy's Wessex inhabited sparsely by the people who cut the furze that grows there. The entire action of Hardy's novel The Return of the Native takes place on Egdon Heath, and it also features in The Mayor of Casterbridge and the short story The Withered...

, and, with the exception of the epilogue, Aftercourses, covers exactly a year and a day.