Under the Greenwood Tree

Publisher Marketing: Under the Greenwood Tree or The Mellstock Quire A Rural Painting of the Dutch School By Thomas Hardy Complete English Classics Under the Greenwood Tree: A Rural Painting of the Dutch School is a novel by Thomas Hardy, published anonymously in 1872. It was Hardy's second published novel, the last to be printed without his name, and the first of his great series of Wessex novels. Whilst Hardy originally thought of simply calling it The Mellstock Quire, he settled on a title taken from a song in Shakespeare's As You Like It (Act II, Scene V). Thomas Hardy, OM (2 June 1840 - 11 January 1928) was an English novelist and poet. A Victorian realist in the tradition of George Eliot, he was influenced both in his novels and in his poetry by Romanticism, especially William Wordsworth. Charles Dickens was another important influence. Like Dickens, he was highly critical of much in Victorian society, though Hardy focused more on a declining rural society. While Hardy wrote poetry throughout his life and regarded himself primarily as a poet, his first collection was not published until 1898. Initially, therefore, he gained fame as the author of novels, including Far from the Madding Crowd (1874), The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886), Tess of the d'Urbervilles (1891), and Jude the Obscure (1895). However, beginning in the 1950s Hardy has been recognized as a major poet; he had a significant influence on the Movement poets of the 1950s and 1960s, including Phillip Larkin. Review Citations: Wilson Fiction Catalog 01/01/2010 pg. 324 (EAN 9780199538515, Paperback) Wilson Fiction Catalog 01/01/2014 pg. 399 (EAN 9780199538515, Paperback) Contributor Bio:  Hardy, Thomas, Defendant Thomas Hardy (1840 1928), enduring author of the twentieth century, wrote the classics Jude the Obscure, Tess of the d'Urbervilles, Far from the Madding Crowd, The Return of the Native, The Mayor of Casterbridge, and many other works.