"Under the Greenwood Tree" by Thomas Hardy

 A romance set amongst the comic antics of the rural peasantry. This is the first of Hardy's Wessex novels but much lighter in tone than most of them.

There are two plots, connected only by personnel. Music at Mellstock church has been traditionally provided by a group of string players and singers who call themselves the quire or choir, but a new young vicar has decided that henceforth they will accompany hymns with an organ. The second story is a love story: the nominated organist, schoolteacher Miss Fancy Day is being wooed by Dick Dewy, the carter's son and violinist in the quire, Mr Shiner, the grumpy churchwarden who is pushing for the quire to be replaced, perhaps because they woke him up on Christmas Eve with their carols, and Parson Maybold the new vicar himself. Will she marry for love or for money or for position in society? 

The quire plot roars into life but it never properly develops and it peters out after about 40% of the novel. This was disappointing because it had all the hallmarks of a theme: should tradition or innovation prevail? When, on Christmas day, the school girls sing as loudly as the quire, the latter are appalled: “Brazen-faced hussies! ... ’Tis the gallery have got to sing, all the world knows ... Why, souls, what’s the use o’ the ancients spending scores of pounds to build galleries if people down in the lowest depths of the church sing like that at a moment’s notice?’” The old folk think the old ways must be respected (this theme returns right at the end when a bride has to choose between old ways and new ways for her wedding). On the other hand, the old Parson is revealed as shamelessly hands-off, pocketing the income from the living without doing anything to put himself out, while the new one is stated, approvingly, to have reduced the stigma of being a witch for old Elizabeth Endorfield. It would have been nice to see this conflict developed through the novel but Hardy seems to give up. Instead we are left with a rather predictable and very standard 'who will she wed?' plot.

The characters are fundamentally one dimensional caricatures of the Dickens type (Dickens died two years before this novel was published so he would have been the benchmark at the time Hardy was writing). Not one of the characters has any sort of arc. Fancy is the only character who faces a moral choice. Dick the protagonist the the boy with the heart of gold whose trials and tribulations are all external challenges. Reuben, Dick's father, the leader of the choir and a 'tranter' (a man with a van, or rather, given the period, a cart) The rest of the characters contribute to the colourful and comedic background, particularly Thomas Leaf, a simpleton.

Thomas Leaf, a somewhat shaky gentleman, is an example of Hardy's use of charactonyms of which the most obvious is Fancy though Dick is somewhat Dewy behind the ears and Elizabeth Endorfield is blatantly named for the Witch of Endor who conjures up prophecies for King Saul in 1 Samuel 28.

Dick's courting is set against the marriages of, particularly, his parents Reuben and Mrs Dewy and Fancy's father and step-mother. There are also mentions of the Penny marriage. These allow the author a number of reflections about marriage, almost always seen from the male point of view:

• "She d’belong to that class of womankind that become second wives: a rum class rather.” (2.6)
• “wives be such a provoking class o’ society, because though they be never right, they be never more than half wrong.” (2.6)
• “When you’ve made up your mind to marry, take the first respectable body that comes to hand—she’s as good as any other; they be all alike in the groundwork; ’tis only in the flourishes there’s a difference.” (2.8)

There are some wonderful descriptions. Hardy's descriptions of scenery as illuminated and shadowed is almost cinematic:

• “Having come more into the open he could now be seen rising against the sky, his profile appearing on the light background like the portrait of a gentleman in black cardboard.” (1.1)
• “They were all brightly illuminated, and each was backed up by a shadow as long as a steeple” (2.2)
• “The landscape being concave, at the going down of the sun everything suddenly assumed a uniform robe of shade.” (4.2)

He's also very fond of the pathetic fallacy: whether it is raining or sunny, windy or calm, the weather always reinforces the plot point perfectly.

Fundamentally, this is a pastoral comedy. There are a couple of moments of farce (when the Parson drops his pen, and when Fancy is stung on the lips) and some delightful set pieces, particularly when the characters are in conversation, such as Dick's first dinner eaten with Fancy's dad and his strange wife. There are also some brilliant one-liners:

• “Marrying a woman is a thing you can do at any moment; but a swarm o’ bees won’t come for the asking.” (5.1)
• “‘’Tis my belief she’s a very good woman at bottom.’/ ‘She’s terrible deep, then’.” (5.2) OK, that's a two-liner involving a straight man's set up and a withering riposte.

It's the humour, derived from a scrupulous observation of life that reminded me of Cannery Row, that lifts this book out of the ordinary.

Other selected quotes:

• “Having grown so very fast that before he had had time to get used to his height he was higher.” (1.2)
• “That sort o’ coarse touch that’s so upsetting to Ann’s feelings is to my mind a recommendation; for it do always prove a story to be true. And for the same reason, I like a story with a bad moral. My sonnies, all true stories have a coarse touch or a bad moral, depend upon’t. If the story-tellers could ha’ got decency and good morals from true stories, who’d ha’ troubled to invent parables?” (1.8)
• “did you ever hear too—just now at supper-time—talking about ‘taties’ with Michael in such a work-folk way. Well, ’tis what I was never brought up to! With our family ’twas never less than ‘taters,’ and very often ‘pertatoes’ outright” (1.8)
• “That was very nice o’ the man, even though words be wind.” (2.5)
• “Everybody must be managed. Queens must be managed: kings must be managed; for men want managing almost as much as women, and that’s saying a good deal.” (2.5)
• “Then the music is second to the woman, the other churchwarden is second to Shiner, the pa’son is second to the churchwardens, and God A’mighty is nowhere at all.” (2.5)
• “watching the damp slopes of the hill-sides as they streamed in the warmth of the sun, which at this unsettled season shone on the grass with the freshness of an occasional inspector rather than as an accustomed proprietor.” (2.6)
• “If we be doomed to marry, we marry; if we be doomed to remain single, we do.” (2.6)
• “I think I can manage any vicar’s views about me if he’s under forty.” (2.7)
• “That there maid is taking up thy thoughts more than’s good for thee, my sonny. Thou’rt never happy now unless th’rt making thyself miserable about her in one way or another.” (2.8)
• “This is how a maid is. She’ll swear she’s dying for thee, and she is dying for thee, and she will die for thee; but she’ll fling a look over t’other shoulder at another young feller, though never leaving off dying for thee just the same.” (2.8)
• “if you can’t read a maid’s mind by her motions, nature d’seem to say thou’st ought to be a bachelor.” (2.8)
• “For without money man is a shadder!” (4.2)
• “you have enough in you for any society, after a few months of travel with me!” (4.6) The vicar arrogantly reassures the woman he is wooing that she'll be good enough if she succumbs to his tutelage.
• “Well, if you make songs about yourself, my dear, you can’t blame other people for singing ’em." (5.1)

July 2025; 186 pages

It was first published by Tinsley Brothers in 1872

My Penguin paperback edition was issued in 1978 and reprinted in 1982.

This review was written by the author of Bally and Bro, Motherdarling  and The Kids of God

A summary of the plot. Beware of spoilers!

On Christmas Eve, the Mellstock church quire (including some string musicians) gather at Reuben's house for a few drinks and then go round the parish singing carols whether they are wanted or not.

Dick sees the new schoolmistress, Fancy Day, and falls in love.

On Christmas morning the quire go to church and are distressed when other members of the congregation sing as loudly as they do. They blame the new vicar.

Later they gather at Reuben's house for a meal and, after midnight, dancing. Dick is desperate to dance with Fancy. But churchwarden Shiner escorts her home.

The quire meet at Mr Penny's shoemaking shop to discuss the new vicar who wants to change things such as not letting men put their hats in the baptismal font (it's cracked so it won't hold water; the old Parson used to spit on his finger to christen babies). And to replace the quire with an organ. Played by Fancy.

They go to see the vicar, trying their best to keep in step (you'd think a choir ought to be able to manage that!) They win a reprieve until Michaelmas. 

That's more or less the end of the 'quire' plot. 

Soon after Easter, Dick visits Fancy at her father’s house. He realises the rivals to her love include Farmer Shiner and Parson Maybold. He mismanages an opportunity to declare his love. His father advises him to go and get her. He writes her a letter, tears it up and writes another. 

He meets Fancy by chance at Budmouth-Regis and drives her home. They become engaged. But they don't tell anyone and when, finally, Dick speaks to her father he says Dick isn't good enough. 

Fancy consults a local witch who tells her how to win her father over. Fancy goes off her food. Her dad caves in immediately. But the engagement is still not widely known.

Fancy debuts as church organist on a day when Dick is pall-bearing elsewhere. Parson Maybold is smitten by Fancy and proposes, offering her a posh life. She accepts.

Next day Parson Maybold meets Dick be chance and Dick tells him he is engaged. Parson M writes to Fancy offering to break the engagement; she writes to him breaking it off. He advises her to tell Dick and be forgiven.

Fancy and Dick marry. Dick still doesn't (and will never) know.