Under the Greenwood Tree

by Thomas Hardy, Simon Gatrell (Editor), Phillip Mallett

Overview

"Miss Fancy Day; as neat a little figure of fun as ever I see, and just husband-high."

One of the most popular of Hardy's novels, Under the Greenwood Tree is a delightful and humorous depiction of life in an early Victorian rural community. The story delicately balances the concerns of the Mellstock parish choir with a romance between the village schoolmistress and a member of the choir. Hardy thought well enough of the tale to place it among his Novels of Character and Environment, a group with includes his most characteristic work.

This freshly reset second edition features a new introduction by Phillip Mallett, who explores the tension in the novel between a vanishing rural idyll and the social realities making change inevitable; the novel's portrait of rural life and character; its revealing textual history and the relation of art to elegy. This edition also features new, expanded notes which provide historical background, gloss dialect and unfamiliar terms, and highlight significant revisions.

Lastly, both the introduction and the notes take into account the substantial critical discussion that has taken place in the 27 years since the edition was first published. The book also includes maps of Hardy's Wessex and the fictional setting of Mellstock, a new and up-to-date bibliography, and a thorough chronology.

About the Series: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the broadest spectrum of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, voluminous notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780199697205
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	05/19/2013
Series:	Oxford World's Classics Series
Edition description:	Second Edition
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	4.90(w) x 7.70(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Phillip Mallett has published widely on Hardy and has edited The Mayor of Casterbridge and The Return of the Native for Norton. He is the editor of Thomas Hardy in Context (CUP, 2012), and of the Thomas Hardy Journal and the Hardy Society Journal. He has written the introduction to Flora Thompson's Lark Rise to Candleford (OUP, 2010).

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