One of Thomas Hardys most greatly loved and gentlest books, Under the Greenwood Tree is an unashamed idyll and picturesque portrait of the long-vanished pastoral society of early victorian England. It was the book which established Hardy as a writer and is the ideal vehicle for him to express his affection and love for the Wessex countryside, rural life and characters in all seasons and moods.Under the Greenwood Tree will strike a chord with the modern day reader.

Under the Greenwood Tree or The Mellstock Quire is one of the most gready loved and perhaps the gentlest of Hardys books. It is an unashamed idyll, a picturesque portrait of the long-vanished pastoral society of early Victorian England described by the author as a rural painting of the Dutch School, in which Hardy draws on his personal affection for the countryside and rural fife in all its moods and in every season. It is also the work which confirmed Hardy in his life as a writer.After the initial rejection of Under the Greenwood Tree by a leading publisher, Hardy re-submitted the manuscript and accepted the offer of a 30 dollar fee with no subsequent royalty rights. This might seem to have been rash with hindsight, but the immediate success and wide popularity of the book led to the immediate acceptance of Hardy as a writer of great commercial promise and from then onwards he was courted by publishers and was consequently able to command royalties on ever more advantageous terms. The novel is set in Mellstock, modelled on Hardys native Stinsford, and chronicles the love affair between Dick Dewy, son of the local tranter or carrier of goods, and the effervescent and flirtatious Fancy Day, the newly arrived village schoolmistress.The background to the affair is the village choir and the famously rustic characters who are its members. Their exploits while carol singing, their deep opposition to the introduction of a new-fangled cabinet-organ or harmonium - a cause championed by Fancy as the would-be organist, and their general gaiety are among the most treasured vignettes in all of Hardys works. Fancy has two other suitors: Fred Shiner, a rich farmer of the locality and churchwarden,and Parson Maybold. The reader will be absorbed by the vicissitudes of romantic fortune as Fancy seeks to make up her mind about which suitor she will accept, and delighted by the clever and amusing counterpoint of the doings of the assorted rustics.

PART THE FIRST: WINTER

Mellstock-Lane

The Tranters

The Assembled Quire

Going the Rounds

The Listeners

Christmas Morning

The Tranters Party

They Dance more Wildly

Dick Calls at the School

PART THE SECOND:SPRING

Passing by the School

A Meeting of the Quire

A Turn in the Discussion

The Interview with the Vicar

Returning Homeward

Yalbury Wood and the Keepers House

Dick Makes himself Useful

Dick Meets his Father

PART TIlE THIRD: SUMMER

Driving out of Budmouth

Further along the Road

A Confession

An Arrangement

PART THE FOURTH: AUTUMN

Going Nutting

Honey-taking, and Afterwards

Fancy in the Rain

The Spell

After Gaining her Point

Into Temptation

Second Thoughts

PART THE FIFTH:CONCLUSION

The Knot Theres No Untying

Under the Greenwood Tree