Product Description

'If ever I forget your name let me forget home and heaven...But no, no, my love, I never can forget 'ee; for you was a good man, and did good things!'

Love, and the erratic heart, are at the centre of Hardy's 'woodland story'. Set in the beautiful Blackmoor Vale, The Woodlanders concerns the fortunes of Giles Winterborne, whose love for the well-to-do Grace Melbury is challenged by the arrival of the dashing and dissolute doctor, Edred Fitzpiers. When the mysterious Felice Charmond further complicates the romantic entanglements, marital choice and class mobility become inextricably linked. Hardy's powerful novel depicts individuals
in thrall to desire and the natural law that motivates them.

This is the only critical edition of The Woodlanders based on a comprehensive study of the manuscript and incorporating later revisions.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #28851 in Books
• Published on: 1996-04-01
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 336 pages

Synopsis
Educated beyond her station, Grace Melbury returns to the woodland village of little Hintock and cannot marry her intended, Giles Winterborne. Her alternative choice proves disastrous, and in a moving tale that has vibrant characters, many humorous moments and genuine pathos coupled with tragic irony, Hardy eschews a happy ending. With characteristic derision, he exposes the cruel indifference of the archaic legal system off his day, and shows the tragic consequences of untimely adherence to futile social and religious proprieties.

Customer Reviews

One of the best
Hardy must rate as one of the best authors that can effortlessly project the life and times through every part of his book, allowing you to feel you know the place intimately, breath the atmosphere and understand the social structure of the untouched and unchanged Victorian country folk he depicts. This is one of his best stories that will have you experiencing many different feelings right through to tears. Excellent and in my top ten reads of all time.

It's My Favorite Hardy Too!
Thomas Hardy is my favorite prose writer and The Woodlanders is my favorite of his novels. No one writes like Thomas Hardy. The Woodlanders is special-beautifully written and classic. I highly recommend it.

my favourite Hardy!
This never gets rated as one of Hardy's 'great' novels (Tess, Jude, Native, Crowd) but it's always been my favourite. Something about the characters and their interactions just speaks to me.

As it is Hardy, expect melodrama, coicidences, and gut-wrenching emotions, but unlike so many books written today this is packed full of real characters, real emotion and a real plot.

If you've never read Hardy before, this probably isn't an ideal place to start (try Tess, or for a lighter Hardy Far from the Madding Crowd), but then come back to this. I have read and re-read repeatedly and still cry - a sign of a superlative writer and story-teller.