Works of Thomas Hardy discussion

Book
Under the Greenwood Tree (1872)

GoodReads Blurb
"Under the Greenwood Tree" is the story of the romantic entanglement between church musician, Dick Dewey, and the attractive new school mistress, Fancy Day.

Criticisms and Analysis
Sometimes grouped with Hardy's lesser novels, Under the Greenwood Tree is also occasionally recognised by critics as an important precursor to his major works. In his 1872 review of the novel for the Saturday Review, the critic Horace Moule, one of Hardy's mentors and friends, called it a "prose idyll"; that judgement has stuck. Hardy's amiable, mildly ironic portrait of rural town life in the middle of the nineteenth century is perhaps the strongest aspect of the work. The Wessex rustics who play critical but generally secondary roles in Hardy's later novels, like The Return of the Native and The Mayor of Casterbridge, claim the centre stage in Under the Greenwood Tree.

While the novel closes on an ambiguous and even sceptical note, it is nevertheless distinguished among Hardy's fiction—particularly his Wessex novels—for its relative happiness and amiability. For the critic Irving Howe, Under the Greenwood Tree served as a kind of necessary prequel and establishing myth for the world of Wessex that Hardy depicted in subsequent tragic works: the novel, he argued, "is a fragile evocation of a self-contained country world that in Hardy's later fiction will come to seem distant and unavailable, a social memory by which to judge the troubled present."(from Wikipedia)

The Title
The title comes from a song in William Shakespeare's As You Like It (Act 2, Scene 5):

UNDER THE GREENWOOD TREE

Under the greenwood tree
Who loves to lie with me,
And turn his merry note
Unto the sweet bird's throat,
Come hither, come hither, come hither:
 Here shall he see
 No enemy
But winter and rough weather.

Who doth ambition shun
And loves to live i' the sun,
Seeking the food he eats,
And pleased with what he gets,
Come hither, come hither, come hither:
 Here shall he see
 No enemy
But winter and rough weather.

Quotes
https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes...

Novel Guide
http://www.novelguide.com/under-the-g...

Official Reading Club Period:
June 1 - 30, 2014

Where to Buy:
• Paperback (Starting at $3.95)
• Kindle (free with Whispersync
• Audible Audio Edition ($3.47: whispersyncs with Kindle edition)
• LibreVox Free Audio Version
• Other Buying Options
• Project Gutenberg (free)
• Your Local Library

Movie Versions
*Under the Greenwood Tree (2005) ... Netflix Instant or You Tube
*The Greenwood Tree (1929)

Reading Questions
PRE-READING QUESTIONS:
1. Hardy's books often show how people are being replaced as the world modernizes. In the beginning of this story, we find that the church choir is being replaced by a fancy new organ to be played by the new school mistress, Miss Fancy Day. In our own time, what new inventions do you see replacing people from in the next 20 years?

READING QUESTIONS
1. For those of you who have read works by Charles Dickens, does the beginning of the story feel like a nod to his writing style to you?

2. Which of Miss Fancy Day's suitors do you think are most suited for her, if any?

3. Which suitor is most annoying? Why?

4. In the section where Fancy is fussing over what she's going to wear, were you as exasperated with her as Dick was?

5. What do you think about Dick being upset with Fancy over dressing nice for her first organ performance?

6. How do you think the title of the story relates to the story itself?

POST-READING QUESTIONS
Post-reading questions (complete with spoilers) can be found here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Spoilers
Please use spoiler cuts to discuss spoilers. There's another thread for discussion of the whole book after reading. To find out how to use spoiler cuts, please go to the "some html is ok" link above the comment box.

Please comment if you're joining the discussion.

Amy wrote: "Please comment if you're joining the discussion."

I'll be joining :)

I can't promise I'll join this one. I read this novel for the second time last December or so. However, I'll be watching this group. I like your approach Amy.

I just read it a couple of months ago, so I'll not read it again, but I do want to discuss it. I didn't want to skip it in case there were others who hadn't read it yet or who wanted to discuss it.

Please feel free to add your own questions as you read.

PRE-READING QUESTIONS:
1. Hardy's books often show how people are being replaced as the world modernizes. In the beginning of this story, we find that the church choir is being replaced by a fancy new organ to be played by the new school mistress, Miss Fancy Day. In our own time, what new inventions do you see replacing people from in the next 20 years?

READING QUESTIONS
1. For those of you who have read works by Charles Dickens, does the beginning of the story feel like a nod to his writing style to you?

2. Which of Miss Fancy Day's suitors do you think are most suited for her, if any?

3. Which suitor is most annoying? Why?

4. In the section where Fancy is fussing over what she's going to wear, were you as exasperated with her as Dick was?

5. What do you think about Dick being upset with Fancy over dressing nice for her first organ performance?

6. How do you think the title of the story relates to the story itself?

POST-READING QUESTIONS
Post-reading questions (complete with spoilers) can be found here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

READING QUESTIONS:

1. No, I can't say I found it to be that way. As much as I love Dickens; he takes his time building his story; constantly layering. Hardy just presents you the world from the first chapter and it just unfolds effortlessly...

2. *Most suited*? I reckon Mr Maybold.

3. I despised Mr Shiner. Vindictive child that he was. Makes me shudder.

4. YES! YES! A thousand times yes! Seriously woman; get on with it.

5. I could see it from both views. He was concerned she was being shallow and not seeing the big picture. She was nervous and wanted to make a good impression. I don't feel either of them were wrong. Both perfectly valid viewpoints.

6. ...I haven't thought about it - but open to hearing people's suggestions!

1. In the later works I've read, Hardy doesn't seem to use as much colloquial speech of the lower class as he does in this one. So I guess it's the lower class speech that reminds me most of Dickens' writing.

2. I found Maybold to be most suited to her if there was no other choice to be had. He seems to be a better match intellectually. I have to wonder if she would have been more attracted to him if he would have pursued her a little harder rather than coming out of left field with a marriage proposal. In the movie, it's more obvious that he has interest in her. However, in the book, he really doesn't make his feelings known as Dewy and Shiner do. Shiner's pursuit is creepy and intense while Dewy's is shy and puppy-dog-love sweet. In the end, though, I don't know why she felt that love would pass her by if she didn't choose between these 3. It's a small town, but someone better might have come along eventually.

3. Shiner seemed the most creepy of the 3 pursuers. Perhaps such bold pursuit wouldn't have been so creepy if she'd ever expressed any interest in him. But the way he tended to accost her was surely a major turn off.

4. I was ready to head out the door with Dick when she started fussing over her clothes. Where in the world did Hardy find his example for this? Exasperating.

5. Of course she wanted to look nice, so I was tiffed at Dewy for his jealousy over her wanting to look nice. I would have liked very much for Dewy to have walked out of Miss Day's life after the clothing fuss incident and for Miss Day to walk out of Dewy's life because he was jealous that she wanted to look pretty for her organ debut. THAT would have been the perfect ending to their relationship.

6. I'm not sure how the poem relates to the book other than to think that "winter and rough weather" is ahead for Miss Day's and Dewy's relationship.

You know ... I was assuming that I was just not familiar with the type of tree called "greenwood" because it was a type to be found in England and I live in the US. But it appears that there's no such thing as a greenwood tree. No wonder I could never remember the title of this book as I was reading it. I kept on wanting to call it Under the Evergreen Tree instead.

Amy wrote: "You know ... I was assuming that I was just not familiar with the type of tree called "greenwood" because it was a type to be found in England and I live in the US. But it appears that there's no s..."

I also had no idea there was no such thing as a greenwood tree. It sounded like such a very pretty name though.

I thought I'd make a poll for each book we finish as a group to kind of gauge what everyone thinks of them. So, for Under the Greenwood Tree, how did you end up rating it?

https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/1...

I loved it! Maybe 4.5 stars? Out of 5 that is. :)