Under The Greenwood Tree

Mellstock is a small Dorset village with strong opinions about church music.

When the new schoolmistress, Fancy Day, arrives and promptly captivates every man in the parish, the village's band of folk musicians finds itself contending with two threats at once: the vicar's plan to replace them with a modern organ, and the distraction of watching Dick Dewy fall helplessly in love.

Under the Greenwood Tree (1872) is Hardy's first major novel and his most quietly contented one. Organised by the seasons, rooted in rural English life, and genuinely funny, it's a portrait of a tight-knit community on the cusp of change. A new world is encroaching, but slowly. For now, there is courtship, there is snow on a clear Christmas Eve night and wind in the trees, and there is music.