Under the Greenwood Tree

Thomas Hardy

Set in the rural village of Mellstock, UNDER THE GREENWOOD TREE is Thomas Hardy’s first major novel and one of his most pastoral works.

It is a love story between Dick Dewy, a wagon driver, and Fancy Day, the new schoolmistress who captivates the village. Around this courtship the village church choir circles. As rustic musicians, their greatest conflict lies in how they are to be replaced by a more fashionable church organ. Like Jewett’s American pastoral A MARSH ISLAND, Hardy’s is a singularly English look into the effects of industrialism on love and community. Opening on a snowy Christmas Eve and then told in seasons, let this charming, much needed little book whisk you away.

In conversation with

Lily King & TK