Books with title Woodland Wonders

In this classically simple tale of the disastrous impact of outside life on a secluded community in Dorse, Hardy narrates the rivalry for the hand of Grace Melbury between a simple and loyal woodlander and an exotic and sophisticated outsider. Betrayal, adultery, disillusion, and moral compromise are all worked out in a setting evoked as both beautiful and treacherous. The Woodlanders, with its thematic portrayal of the role of social class, gender, and evolutionary survival, as well as its insights into the capacities and limitations of language, exhibits Hardy's acute awareness of his era's most troubling dilemmas.

This novel was described as one of Hardys' best and indeed one of the better novels of the latter part of the 19th century. With its publication the author entered into a period of controversy which was to follow him for the rest of his life. Grace Melbury, the timber merchant's daughter, comes back to Little Hintock after some years at finishing school. She was the childhood sweetheart of Giles Winterborne, a compassionate, caring man who works in the village. Melbury senior has promised himself that Grace and Giles will be married to recompense for him taking Giles' father's betrothed many years before. However, Grace is a different woman now, a sophisticated creature, and the suave, knowledgeable local doctor Fitzpiers takes an interest in her. Melbury goes back on his word.... But has Grace changed all that much? And is the doctor the honest professional man he pretends to be? The story is not without flashes of humour, with a rich background of detail and the humanity that characterised Hardy's work, which leads him to question the injustice of the marriage laws in this tale.

The Woodlanders is a novel written and serialized by Thomas Hardy between May 1886 and April 1887. The novel depicts how the peaceful and seemingly quiet life in a small village in England is abruptly turned into chaos by external forces.The story takes place in the small woodland village of Little Hintock. The main heroine of the novel is Grace Melbury, a beautiful young woman who is in love with a simple yet noble woodlander named Giles. They share the passion for each other, but fate, or more exactly Grace’s father, has other plans. Her father is putting every effort possible into educating Grace, and thus he things Giles in no longer a suitable partner for her only daughter, and when the young, handsome and seemingly well-manner doctor Edgar Fitzpiers arrives, her father’s plans start getting shaped.Grace does not love Edgar, but there is nothing she can do against the will of her father. One early morning she sees another young women getting out of Edgar’s home and she suspects that they have an affair. When she confronts him, he says that she had a toothache and he needed to extract it.However, things go ahead with the marriage only to have Edgar cheating Grace with a rich widow afterwards. Grace becomes estranged with Edgar, her father assaults him and things take an abrupt turn. Edgar flees for the continent with his rich widow and Grace starts thinking about her true love – Giles. But fate yet again sets a different course for Grace who will be unable to stay with her true love.In this novel, social and partnership mismatching, unrequited love, unhappy endings are themes which are present, just as in most other works of Thomas Hardy’s. Readers will find reflections on moral and social issues, all set in rustic environment and depicted with great skill.

The Woodlanders is a novel by Thomas Hardy. It was serialised from May 1886 to April 1887 in Macmillan's Magazine and published in three volumes in 1887. It is one of his series of Wessex novels.In this classically simple tale of the disastrous impact of outside life on a secluded community in Dorset, now in a new edition, Hardy narrates the rivalry for the hand of Grace Melbury between a simple and loyal woodlander and an exotic and sophisticated outsider. Betrayal, adultery, disillusion, and moral compromise are all worked out in a setting evoked as both beautiful and treacherous

The Woodlanders CHAPTER I. The rambler who, for old association or other reasons, should trace the forsaken coach-road running almost in a meridional line from Bristol to the south shore of England, would find himself during the latter half of his journey in the vicinity of some extensive woodlands, interspersed with apple-orchards. Here the trees, timber or fruit-bearing, as the case may be, make the wayside hedges ragged by their drip and shade, stretching over the road with easeful horizontality, as if they found the unsubstantial air an adequate support for their limbs. At one place, where a hill is crossed, the largest of the woods shows itself bisected by the high-way, as the head of thick hair is bisected by the white line of its parting. The spot is lonely. The physiognomy of a deserted highway expresses solitude to a degree that is not reached by mere dales or downs, and bespeaks a tomb-like stillness more emphatic than that of glades and pools. The contrast of what is with what might be probably accounts for this. To step, for instance, at the place under notice, from the hedge of the plantation into the adjoining pale thoroughfare, and pause amid its emptiness for a moment, was to exchange by the act of a single stride the simple absence of human companionship for an incubus of the forlorn. At this spot, on the lowering evening of a by-gone winter's day, there stood a man who had entered upon the scene much in the aforesaid manner. Alighting into the road from a stile hard by, he, though by no means a "chosen vessel" for impressions, was temporarily influenced by some such feeling of being suddenly more alone than before he had emerged upon the highway.

"The Woodlanders" by Thomas Hardy. Published by Good Press. Good Press publishes a wide range of titles that encompasses every genre. From well-known classics & literary fiction and non-fiction to forgotten−or yet undiscovered gems−of world literature, we issue the books that need to be read. Each Good Press edition has been meticulously edited and formatted to boost readability for all e-readers and devices. Our goal is to produce eBooks that are user-friendly and accessible to everyone in a high-quality digital format.