Under the Greenwood Tree by Thomas Hardy
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Under the Greenwood Tree (1872) is the second published novel by Thomas Hardy, and it’s the first of his novels of “character and environment.” Set in Hardy’s Wessex in the 1840s, we meet a young schoolmistress, Fancy Day, and the three men who are attracted to her: Dick Dewy, a local lad, a prosperous farmer Shiner, and Reverend Maybold. Dick is also a member of the choir that performs at the parish church in the village of Mellstock. Reverend Maybold plans to bring change to his parish by replacing the choir with a modern organ, played by Fancy.

Like his later novels, the change in the age-old patterns of rural life plays a role in this story. But in Under the Greenwood Tree, it is entwined with a love story, and indeed in many places the story of Fancy and her men overshadows the changes that are coming to rural life in Wessex.

I liked this book; it is in many ways easier to read than Hardy’s later novels – for one thing, it is considerably shorter! And it is a happier story, with a happy ending.