Old Books, New Readers discussion

Because of the chill, brisk air and the feel of change that comes with the end of every season, this coming month's theme will be centered around changing seasons. This could be seasons like summer and winter and the change they bring, or it could be seasons like life and the change that comes with every closing chapter. The winner of the poll is Under the Greenwood Tree.

Post comments and thoughts on this thread.

I haven't read any of Thomas Hardy's work before.
I started it today .
I have good feeling about this book.

Zeinab wrote: "I haven't read any of Thomas Hardy's work before.
I started it today .
I have good feeling about this book."

Awesome 😃 We love to hear your thoughts. Enjoy Reading, 📚

I'm a bit sceptical about this book. I read Far From the Madding Crowd and really didn't like it. But, on the other hand I read Tess of the D'Urbervilles and absolutely loved it! So, we'll just have to see.

I'm about a third way in. I'm reading it on audio and the narrator does all the voices and accents. The accents are so broad it took me a while to tune my ear in. And then there is the different diction of a village in 1800s England to contend with. So, it took me a while to figure out what on earth was going on, but now that I have, I'm quite enjoying it. It is no Tess of the D'Urbervilles, but so far it isn't bad.

I'm finished
(view spoiler)[It wasn't a bad book, but it wasn't great either. A real middle of the road book. The two main story lines were interesting enough, that of the choir and that of Dick and Fancy. I really thought it was wrong of them to kick out the old choir, surely they could have come to some compromise that involved the organ and the old choir. As for Fancy, I think she is terrible for not Telling poor Dick about the Vicker. I found her to be very weak willed and vain. I enjoyed all the village traditions of carol singing and Christmas parties and all of those sorts of things. It was also interesting to see all the different generations within the families, I mean to say how things slowly changed from one generation to the next. (hide spoiler)]

My first Thomas Hardy.
My impression of him was, that at times his writing is so poetic and descriptive, yet not over the top all the time to make the story suffer from trying so hard . If that makes any sense to anyone but me.
The story got me involved with a feeling for the characters and I found myself rooting for Dick and going back and forth on whether I liked Fancy or not. In the end I was almost hoping she would go with the other man because I get the feeling there will be more indecision at a later date because she ultimately is not sure of her decision to marry Dick. I also get the feeling that she should have told her secret or it will eventually come back to haunt her and also strengthens my feeling that she is not as sure as she should be about her decision.
The quire story although being the main object of the story early on was soon buried by the love story that came in later and although I was interested and sympathetic to their demise Hardy seemed to lose his train of thought and only addressed it late in the book as they took their new place in the congregation as the organ forced them out.
I did enjoy Hardy's writing and story telling and would likely read others of his work.

I very much enjoyed Under the Greenwood Tree for it's humor and evocative power (@Larry in his comment describes this very well). This one makes a nice change from the darker and more depressing books I read by Hardy so far. However, it does not have the depth and complexitiy of the others. I feel that especially the Fancy-Dick relationship would have benefited from a bit more further investigation. But maybe I did not catch all the hidden symbolism... for example it only dawned on me much later why she is called "Fancy"(reference to the expression "flight of fancy", I think.)