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Under the Greenwood Tree - Thomas Hardy, Tim Dolin
Under the Greenwood Tree
by: (author) (author)
3.00 5
Under the Greenwood Tree is Thomas Hardy’s one and only rural idyll, a startling contrast to his other Wessex tales. In Mellstock, its surrounding farms and woodlands, the story interweaves the lingering courtship of Dick Dewy and sweet Fancy Day with the battle for survival of the old Mellstock... show more
Under the Greenwood Tree is Thomas Hardy’s one and only rural idyll, a startling contrast to his other Wessex tales. In Mellstock, its surrounding farms and woodlands, the story interweaves the lingering courtship of Dick Dewy and sweet Fancy Day with the battle for survival of the old Mellstock String Choir – the last in the county – against the mechanical church organ of the new vicar, the Reverend Maybold. Under the Greenwood Tree appears to be pastoral romance at its most sunlit and good humoured, and has been called the ‘most nearly flawless of Hardy’s novels’. Yet, as Tim Dolin shows in his Introduction, there is a darker side to this paradise, seen particularly in the conflicts arising over anachronistic customs and rituals, and the ambiguities surrounding Fancy’s forthcoming marriage. For Hardy, who drew out the associations with his own childhood in later revisions, the novel came to epitomize a past that had been forever lost to him and to England. This new Penguin Classics edition, based on the two-volume first edition of 1872, includes Appendices which reflect the unique textual history of the novel. Edited with an Introduction and Notes by Tim Dolin
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Format: paperback
ISBN: 9780140435535 (0140435530)
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Pages no: 288
Edition language: English
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Community Reviews
JB's Reading Life
JB's Reading Life rated it
4.0 Under the Greenwood Tree
More a set of sketches of rural Dorset life, than a fully plotted novel. Full of laugh-out-loud humour and beautifully observed description of landscape and village gossip.
futurista
futurista rated it
2.0 Under the Greenwood Tree
This was Thomas Hardy's 2nd published novel. He apparently destroyed the manuscript of his first written novel because the subject was too controversial. The results was this boring novel which follows the pursuit of a man for a woman he seems to have fallen for on sight alone. I wished desperately ...
Julian Meynell's Books
Julian Meynell's Books rated it
3.0 Under the Greenwood Tree
Very early Thomas Hardy. It's interesting most to see Hardy's progression as a writer. It concentrates on the life in a rural village focused on a choir and on a courtship between a member of the choir and the village school mistress.It is without the relentless bleakness of Hardy's later work and...
Kim Reads and Bakes
Kim Reads and Bakes rated it
3.0
I chose to listen to this audiobook as part of what I anticipate will be an ongoing project designed to overcome my long-held prejudice against Thomas Hardy; a prejudice entirely grounded in my strong dislike of Tess of the D'Urbervilles. The experience of listening to this book has been less succes...
Adriana Reads
Adriana Reads rated it
4.0 Under the Greenwood Tree (Oxford World's Classics)
This was a fun, lighthearted story, not at all what one expects from Thomas Hardy! There is very little in the way of tension or drama, which is probably the main reason this is not listed among his great works. If you're looking for a good, clean romance, look no further. Beautiful language, bea...
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