Under the Greenwood Tree

Creator of the most powerful tragic novels, Hardy was also one of the great humorists. The love of a village Romeo for a vain young schoolmistress; the motley village musicians who provide their romance with its melodious background; the skylarking boys who dam a subterranean stream - and find themselves deciding the destiny of a community. If no writer has been seen with more searing clarity the grand irrationalities of existence, none has been more alive to their humour. The blind perversity of human nature, the quirks of character and the absurd ironies of fortune, Hardy acutely records them all. Yet while sometimes it seems his gaze is bitter, often it is clear there is a twinkle in his eye