Under the Greenwood Tree (Wordsworth Collection)

I was blessed with two happy stays this summer in Touisset, an old-fashioned settlement on the Kickemuit River in Rhode Island where my maternal grandparents built a summer house a hundred years ago.During our two Touisset stays this summer, I read four works by Thomas Hardy: two collections of short stories (Wessex Tales and Life's Little Ironies) and two novels (Under the Greenwood Tree and The Woodlanders). Initially, I assumed that I associate Touisset with Hardy because, during a Touisset stay sixty-one summers ago, I read Jude the Obscure. (I remember as if it were yesterday the July afternoon I read about young Jude Fawley gazing at the dim horizon and making out the distant domes and spires of Christminster. I was entranced, and I went on to read the other best-known Hardy novels: Tess of the D'Urbervilles, The Mayor of Casterbridge, The Return of the Native, and Far from the Madding Crowd). Eventually, however, I came to realize that I associate Touisset with Hardy because Rhode Island is like Wessex: an obscure and eccentric corner of the world. Indeed, Touisset is like Mellstock and Longpuddle and Little Hinton: a small settlement surrounded by old farms, composed of old houses filled with old furnishings, and peopled by descendants of old families who talk with odd accents and tell and retell treasured stories about old times and old-timers. Indeed, "touisset" is a Wampanoag word that means "at the old field"!A common criticism of Hardy's works is that they're all about tragic miscalculations and doomed characters. It's true that Hardy views human beings as "specks" ("speck" is one of his favorite words) in the vastness of Nature and the vastness of Time. It's also true that he views life as "a riband of light [that falls] through the opening [of a door ajar] into the dark atmosphere without," and views human beings as "moths[s], decrepit from the late season, [that] flit for a moment across the outcoming rays and disappear again into the night." Nevertheless, he tells us that, as we flit briefly across the riband of light, we can notice the details of the natural world, write majestically, speak idiosyncratically, cherish old and twice-told tales, chuckle at each other and ourselves, and act with curiosity and compassion toward each other and all creatures.

Hardy is a classic and the book is a really good story. Happy purchase.

Great author and title at a great price.

Hardy’s happiest book is a pleasure to read every time you pick it up. I decided to re-read the book after a lapse of over fifteen years during which I had forgotten its beautiful prose and the simplicity of its characters. There is a lot going on in this small book but nothing eclipses the rest and the broad theme is one of joy, romance and in some cases, juvenile introspection. I suppose for someone new to Hardy, this should be the last book they read to end it all on a happy note.

Great book. Fabulous colourful cover.Received promptly & no p&p

Good

Acquistato questo libro in lingua inglese per una collega. Arrivato nei tempi previsti e nella sua scatola ben imballata. Prodotto gradito quindi direi che il responso è più che positivo!

des personnages attachants, de l'humour, du réalisme et du romantisme en même temps ! Un roman sympathique à lire pour se détendre, un anglais tout à fait abordable...à lire, pour complèter sa bibliothèque du XIXème !

Love this book