Thomas Hardy, Under the Greenwood Tree

Adam White (The Open University)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.07: English Writing and Culture of the Victorian Period, 1837-1901.
Vol. editors: Gillian Fenwick (University of Toronto), Grace Moore (University of Otago)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1872

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Novel

Resources

The title of Thomas Hardy’s second published novel is derived from a song in As You Like It, though the genre of pastoral cannot fully account for either Shakespeare’s play or Under the Greenwood Tree.

As with Hardy’s next-but-one novel, Far from the Madding Crowd (1874), Under the Greenwood Tree presents three men vying for the hand of one woman. The suitors for the young schoolmistress Fancy Day are Dick Dewy, the son of a tranter (a carrier), Shiner, a wealthy farmer (and churchwarden), and Maybold, a young vicar of Mellstock where most of the principal action is located. Both Fancy and Maybold are new to the parish and to their posts, and the novel is a subtle treatment of new influences on …

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2410 words

Citation: White, Adam. "Under the Greenwood Tree". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 02 May 2013 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=8542, accessed 26 November 2024.]

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