Under the Greenwood Tree

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Under the Greenwood Tree
Author	Thomas Hardy
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Publisher	Tinsley Brothers
Publication date	1872

Under the Greenwood Tree or The Mellstock Quire A Rural Painting of the Dutch School is a novel by Thomas Hardy, published anonymously in 1872.

[edit] Plot

The plot concerns the activities of a group of church musicians, one of whom, Dick Dewy, becomes romantically entangled with a comely new school mistress, Fancy Day. For Dick, it's love at first sight, literally, when he sees her through a window as the choir is making the rounds singing on Christmas Eve. While he, smitten, seeks to insinuate himself into her life and affections, Fancy's beauty has gained her other suitors, including the vicar and a farmer who's trying to get the choir removed in favor of an organ. Dick's attempts are further hampered by the fact that he becomes incredibly awkward every time he's around Fancy, and that her father frowns on the match. Love triumphs eventually, although she marries with "a secret she would never tell" - namely, that she was also briefly engaged to the local vicar, Parson Maybold. Therefore, whilst this is often seen as Thomas Hardy's most gentle and pastoral novel, this could be seen as undermined by the fact that Fancy and Dick's marriage and subsequent happiness is based on deception, and the fact that Dick comes across as merely infatuated while Fancy seems shallow.

The novel illustrates the development of technology throughout the Victorian era, as the traditional 'Mellstock Quire' (whose plight forms the book's subtitle) are ousted in favor of the more modern and efficient organ.

[edit] Adaptations

In 2005 Under the Greenwood Tree was adapted for television version by Ashley Pharoah. It starred Keeley Hawes as Fancy Day and James Murray as Dick Dewy. Much of the filming took place at Hamptonne in Jersey.