When Tess of the D’Ubervilles, which I recently read, showed up as a group read in the Reading with Style Challenge along with a 19th Century task, I knew it was time to read another Thomas Hardy book. Under the Greenwood Tree was the perfect choice as it was about music and a little romance with lots of humor, especially toward the end of the book. This peek into a small community in England of the 1800s involved me from the first page as it opened on Christmas Eve as the musicians traveled door to door through the village. This little group of church players is about to be replaced by a pretty church organist who is the love interest of three men. The rules of courting come into play as do the whims of the rather fickle Fancy Day. This was not the heavy Thomas Hardy of Tess and Jude the Obscure, and I do like his darker stories of the poor and downtrodden, but a pleasant little gem in which Hardy’s writing voice shines through.