Works of Thomas Hardy discussion

Those of us who have already read the book can discuss here without worrying about spoilers.

Feel free to add your own discussion questions.

POST-READING QUESTIONS
1. Do you think that Miss Fancy Day was happy with her final marriage decision? Do you think that she will "live happily ever after"?

2. Some of the blurbs for this book calls it "pastoral". Did you feel that the book was pastoral in nature other than the very early descriptions of trees?

3. What was your overall feeling about the book? How many stars do you give this one? Is it a favorite or a least favorite of the works of Hardy that you have read?

1. I do not think the Dewys will be happy together. They'll co-exist together, but I think Dick will have a tendency to stifle Fancy in his jealously. It will be even worse for her if he insists that she not continue as the school mistress now that she's married. And then what? Everything her father worried about will come to pass. It's hard for someone to go out into the world and become "Fancy" and then return home to a small village to live among people who are no longer her peers. Her only intellectual peer appears to be Mister Maybold. She should have gone with her first instinct and said yes to his marriage proposal. Then she would have been able to go with him out into the world where she'd probably be happier.

2. I think of pastoral works as being those that showcase outdoor country life and work (harvesting food, tending livestock, etc.). As such, I'd put Tess of the D'Ubervilles and Anna Karenina in my mental category for "pastoral". But to go with the true definition of "pastoral", I suppose that this does show the "simplicity, charm, serenity, or other characteristics generally attributed to rural areas" and showcase country or rural life.

3. I rated this one 2 stars mainly because I didn't care for any of the characters and found the story too simple. I watched the movie to see if I missed anything, and I felt that it increased my like of the book by half a star. So 2.5 stars it is. I certainly have no intention of recommending it or reading it again.

I'm surprised no one discussed the title other than to say it wasn't an actual type of tree. There is a Greenwood here in my state of South Carolina; it's one of the larger towns. I wondered if its definition was "wood too freshly hewn to make good firewood" and so looked it up. My guess was wrong.

greenwood - noun archaic
a wood or forest in leaf (regarded as the typical scene of medieval outlaw life).

I guess that's why SC has a Greenwood. (We have some sort of medieval outlaws in these here parts.) In the book we don't learn why greenwood was in the title of the novel until the fifth and final part.

The term may not be so obsolete either: https://www.theguardian.com/environme...

Just commenting to follow up when I have read it - planning to read this Dec.