Under the Greenwood Tree

by Thomas Hardy, Tim Dolin (Editor), Tim Dolin (Introduction), Tim Dolin (Noted by), Patricia Ingham (Preface by)

Overview

The arrival of two newcomers in the quiet village of Mellstock arouses a bitter feud and leaves a convoluted love affair in its wake. While the Reverend Maybold creates a furore among the village's musicians with his decision to abolish the church's traditional 'string choir' and replace it with a modern mechanical organ, the new schoolteacher, Fancy Day, causes an upheaval of a more romantic nature, winning the hearts of three very different men - a local farmer, a church musician and Maybold himself. Under the Greenwood Tree follows the ensuing maze of intrigue and passion with gentle humour and sympathy, deftly evoking the richness of village life, yet tinged with melancholy for a rural world that Hardy saw fast disappearing.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780141909257
Publisher:	Penguin UK
Publication date:	05/07/1998
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	288
File size:	2 MB
Age Range:	3 Months

About the Author

Thomas Hardy was born in 1840 and wrote both poetry and novels, including Far From the Madding Crowd, The Mayor of Casterbridge, Tess of the D'Urbervilles and Jude the Obscure. He died in 1928.

Tim Dolin is Research Fellow in the Australia Research Institute at Curtin University of Technology in Perth, WA. He is the author of books and articles on Victorian fiction, and has edited three of Hardy's novels for Penguin. He has just completed George Eliot for Oxford's 'Authors in Context' series, and is working on a study of the significance of British and American popular fiction in the development of Australian culture.

Date of Birth:

June 2, 1840

Date of Death:

January 11, 1928

Place of Birth:

Higher Brockhampon, Dorset, England

Place of Death:

Max Gate, Dorchester, England

Education:

Served as apprentice to architect James Hicks

Table of Contents

List of illustrations; General editor's preface; Acknowledgements; Chronology; Abbreviations; Introduction; Under the Greenwood Tree; Variants in punctuation and styling; End-of-line hyphenation; Editorial emendations; Appendix A. Hardy's preface to the Wessex Edition; Appendix B. Under the Greenwood Tree and The Poor Man and the Lady; Appendix C. Detailed analysis of the manuscript; Appendix D. Chapter-division in the manuscript; Appendix E. Watermarks in the manuscript; Appendix F. The compositors of the first edition; Appendix G. Robson's compositors in A Pair of Blue Eyes; Appendix H. Differences between the first and second editions; Appendix I. Printing orders for Under the Greenwood Tree Published by Chatto and Windus and Macmillan; Appendix J. Frontispieces; Appendix K. Description of substantive editions; Explanatory notes.

Editorial Reviews

This early Hardy novel tells the story of a pastoral romance in the small Wessex village of Mellstock. Jamie Parker’s friendly, resonant tone adds warmth to a surprisingly cheerful work by an author known for his dour stories. Parker’s use of vocal variation in delivering Hardy’s descriptive prose guides listeners smoothly through the plot. He also demonstrates mastery in his renderings of local country dialects. The conversations between the choir members, who include an interesting range of ages and characterizations, are especially well performed, and his singing of various songs also enlivens the text. Overall, Parker’s charming performance adds much personality to this Hardy classic. D.M.W. © AudioFile 2014, Portland, Maine

NOVEMBER 2014 - AudioFile