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A review by monkeelino
Under the Greenwood Tree by Thomas Hardy
3.0
This was my first Hardy thanks to a GR group read. If I knew nothing about Hardy, I'm not sure I'd read more of him, but I think this was an unusually light and upbeat novel given what I do know of him. Words that came to mind while reading this: quaint, pleasant, wholesome (a British Little House on the Prairie meets The Beverly Hillbillies). Normally, I'd potentially use such words pejoratively when discussing a book, but it might be better to say I found this: mildly amusing. Hardy slips in some rather comical exchanges and goes heavy on the female stereotypes.
Fancy Day lives up to her name and Dick does not.
But let's just treat this as the marriage/relationship advice book it is...
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HARDY'S TOP TIPS ON LOVE & THE FAIRER SEX
- Ladies, don't sing louder than the fellows in church (it's rude and disharmonious; also, they might start thinking of you as worse than a clarinet)
- "Everybody must be managed. Queens must be managed: kings must be managed; for men want managing almost as much as women, and that’s saying a good deal."
- " …wives be such a provoking class o’ society, because though they be never right, they be never more than half wrong."
- "Ay, good; she’s good enough. When you’ve made up your mind to marry, take the first respectable body that comes to hand—she’s as good as any other; they be all alike in the groundwork; ’tis only in the flourishes there’s a difference."
[Note: "Nice groundwork!" is not a catcall that has proven successful after rigorous testing, but much fatherly advice has yet to progress with the times...]
- "Now ... this is how a maid is. She’ll swear she’s dying for thee, and she is dying for thee, and she will die for thee; but she’ll fling a look over t’other shoulder at another young feller, though never leaving off dying for thee just the same."
[2024 update: Check your partner's phone frequently, especially their texts and social media.]
- Fashion advice/feedback between a couple is--and always has been--a minefield:
“What’s the objection to the hat? Does it make me look old?”
“O no; the hat is well enough; but it makes you look rather too—you won’t mind me saying it, dear?”
“Not at all, for I shall wear the bonnet.”
“—Rather too coquettish and flirty for an engaged young woman.”
She reflected a minute. “Yes; yes. Still, after all, the hat would do best; hats are best, you see. Yes, I must wear the hat, dear Dicky, because I ought to wear a hat, you know.”
Go forth and multiply!
Fancy Day lives up to her name and Dick does not.
But let's just treat this as the marriage/relationship advice book it is...
----------------------------------------
HARDY'S TOP TIPS ON LOVE & THE FAIRER SEX
- Ladies, don't sing louder than the fellows in church (it's rude and disharmonious; also, they might start thinking of you as worse than a clarinet)
- "Everybody must be managed. Queens must be managed: kings must be managed; for men want managing almost as much as women, and that’s saying a good deal."
- " …wives be such a provoking class o’ society, because though they be never right, they be never more than half wrong."
- "Ay, good; she’s good enough. When you’ve made up your mind to marry, take the first respectable body that comes to hand—she’s as good as any other; they be all alike in the groundwork; ’tis only in the flourishes there’s a difference."
[Note: "Nice groundwork!" is not a catcall that has proven successful after rigorous testing, but much fatherly advice has yet to progress with the times...]
- "Now ... this is how a maid is. She’ll swear she’s dying for thee, and she is dying for thee, and she will die for thee; but she’ll fling a look over t’other shoulder at another young feller, though never leaving off dying for thee just the same."
[2024 update: Check your partner's phone frequently, especially their texts and social media.]
- Fashion advice/feedback between a couple is--and always has been--a minefield:
“What’s the objection to the hat? Does it make me look old?”
“O no; the hat is well enough; but it makes you look rather too—you won’t mind me saying it, dear?”
“Not at all, for I shall wear the bonnet.”
“—Rather too coquettish and flirty for an engaged young woman.”
She reflected a minute. “Yes; yes. Still, after all, the hat would do best; hats are best, you see. Yes, I must wear the hat, dear Dicky, because I ought to wear a hat, you know.”
Go forth and multiply!