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The Woodlanders (Penguin Classics) Paperback – August 1, 1998

by Thomas Hardy (Author), Patricia Ingham (Introduction)

590 ratings

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When country-girl Grace Melbury returns home from her middle-class school she feels she has risen above her suitor, the simple woodsman Giles Winterborne. Though marriage had been discussed between her and Giles, Grace finds herself captivated by Dr Edred Fitzpiers, a sophisticated newcomer to the area—a relationship that is encouraged by her socially ambitious father. Hardy's novel of betrayal, disillusionment and moral compromise depicts a secluded community coming to terms with the disastrous impact of outside influences. And in his portrayal of Giles Winterborne, Hardy shows a man who responds deeply to the forces of the natural world, thought they ultimately betray him.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“The finest English novel.”—Arnold Bennett

About the Author

Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) immortalized the site of his birth—Egdon Heath, in Dorset, near Dorchester—in his writing. Delicate as a child, he was taught at home by his mother before he attended grammar school. At sixteen, Hardy was apprenticed to an architect, and for many years, architecture was his profession; in his spare time, he pursued his first and last literary love, poetry. Finally convinced that he could earn his living as an author, he retired from architecture, married, and devoted himself to writing. An extremely productive novelist, Hardy published an important book every year or two. In 1896, disturbed by the public outcry over the unconventional subjects of his two greatest novels—Tess of the D’Urbervilles and Jude the Obscure—he announced that he was giving up fiction and afterward produced only poetry. In later years, he received many honors. He was buried in Poet’s Corner, in Westminster Abbey. It was as a poet that he wished to be remembered, but today critics regard his novels as his most memorable contribution to English literature for their psychological insight, decisive delineation of character, and profound presentation of tragedy.

Patricia Ingham is a Senior Research Fellow and Reader at St Anne's College, Oxford. She has written on the Victorian novel and on Hardy in particular. she is the General Editor of all of Hardy's fiction in the Penguin Classics and has edited Gaskell's North and South for the series.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Penguin Classics (August 1, 1998)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 464 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0140435476
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0140435474
Lexile measure ‏ : ‎ 1130L
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 11.1 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.1 x 0.82 x 7.77 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #585,856 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #735 in Teen & Young Adult Classic Literature
- #8,060 in Classic Literature & Fiction
- #20,193 in Literary Fiction (Books)

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590 ratings

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Thomas Hardy
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Thomas Hardy was born in a cottage in Higher Bockhampton, near Dorchester, on 2 June 1840. He was educated locally and at sixteen was articled to a Dorchester architect, John Hicks. In 1862 he moved to London and found employment with another architect, Arthur Blomfield. He now began to write poetry and published an essay. By 1867 he had returned to Dorset to work as Hicks's assistant and began his first (unpublished) novel, The Poor Man and the Lady.
On an architectural visit to St Juliot in Cornwall in 1870 he met his first wife, Emma Gifford. Before their marriage in 1874 he had published four novels and was earning his living as a writer. More novels followed and in 1878 the Hardys moved from Dorset to the London literary scene. But in 1885, after building his house at Max Gate near Dorchester, Hardy again returned to Dorset. He then produced most of his major novels: The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886), The Woodlanders (1887), Tess of the D'Urbervilles (1891), The Pursuit of the Well-Beloved (1892) and Jude the Obscure (1895). Amidst the controversy caused by Jude the Obscure, he turned to the poetry he had been writing all his life. In the next thirty years he published over nine hundred poems and his epic drama in verse, The Dynasts.
After a long and bitter estrangement, Emma Hardy died at Max Gate in 1912. Paradoxically, the event triggered some of Hardy's finest love poetry. In 1914, however, he married Florence Dugdale, a close friend for several years. In 1910 he had been awarded the Order of Merit and was recognized, even revered, as the major literary figure of the time. He died on 11 January 1928. His ashes were buried in Westminster Abbey and his heart at Stinsford in Dorset.
Photo by Bain News Service, publisher [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.
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Patricia Ingham
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Margaret Drabble
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Margaret Drabble is the author of The Sea Lady, The Seven Sisters, The Peppered Moth, and The Needle's Eye, among other novels. She has written biographies of Arnold Bennett and Angus Wilson, and she is the editor of the fifth and sixth editions of The Oxford Companion to English Literature. For her contributions to contemporary English literature, she was made a Dame of the British Empire in 2008.
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Customers find the book to be a fantastic read with logical storytelling. They appreciate the character development, with one customer highlighting the memorable characters. The language receives positive feedback, with one customer noting the author's mastery of the English language.

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9 customers mention "Readability"9 positive0 negative

Customers find the book to be a fantastic and logical read, with one customer specifically praising Hardy's classic storytelling style.

"Classic Hardy storytelling at its best. I really loved this book. My first Hardy novel was Tess of the D'urbervilles which I enjoyed...." Read more

"The story is logical,interesting and techically artistic. We connect with the main characters and emotionally suffer the same traumas which they do...." Read more

"I like a lot novels of the Victorian era, this book is a must read if you are a fan of this type of novels." Read more

"I do not write reviews, but it was a fantastic read." Read more

3 customers mention "Character development"3 positive0 negative

Customers appreciate the character development in the book.

"...It's an easy read with memorable characters and an intriguing plot. I really liked this one and can't recommend it enough!" Read more

"...We connect with the main characters and emotionally suffer the same traumas which they do...." Read more

"It's always great to go back to Thomas Hardy. The settings and the characters, and his writing are beyond compare." Read more

3 customers mention "Language"3 positive0 negative

Customers appreciate the language of the book, with one noting the author's mastery of English, while another finds the writing beyond compare.

"...It's an easy read with memorable characters and an intriguing plot. I really liked this one and can't recommend it enough!" Read more

"...Hardy's mastery of the English language is always entertaining, and he tells his usual intriguing romance coupled with social commentary, but I..." Read more

"...The settings and the characters, and his writing are beyond compare." Read more

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Padraic Ford
Put in your TBR
Reviewed in the United States on June 25, 2021
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Classic Hardy storytelling at its best. I really loved this book. My first Hardy novel was Tess of the D'urbervilles which I enjoyed. The Woodlanders is even better (imho). I have already ordered The Mayor of Casterbridge and Far From the Madding Crowd with plans to add Jude the Obscure. It's an easy read with memorable characters and an intriguing plot. I really liked this one and can't recommend it enough!

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Betty Joann Gallenstein
The story is logical, interesting and techically artistic. ...
Reviewed in the United States on October 15, 2015
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The story is logical,interesting and techically artistic. We connect with the main characters and emotionally suffer the same traumas which they do. This is a class assignment but I am reading it for pleasure.

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Luis Roberto Azaar Meza
a very nice novel
Reviewed in the United States on June 13, 2023
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I like a lot novels of the Victorian era, this book is a must read if you are a fan of this type of novels.

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Molly
Disappointed, not synced with audio
Reviewed in the United States on August 7, 2019
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Not sure what "word wise" means, but it does not mean it is follows the narration.

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Karen D. Somers
Not My Favorite, but Still Awesome Literature
Reviewed in the United States on June 11, 2002
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I'm a big fan of Thomas Hardy, but of all of the books he has written, this one was probably my least favorite. Hardy's mastery of the English language is always entertaining, and he tells his usual intriguing romance coupled with social commentary, but I thought the ending was "too happy!" Apparently, this was Hardy's own favorite novel. Woodlanders is definately worthwhile, but I would recommend to novice Hardy readers to try Tess, Jude or Mayor of Casterbridge before this novel.

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4 people found this helpful

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Loretta Lester
Nobody Writes like Thomas Hardy
Reviewed in the United States on October 6, 2016
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I am a devoted Thomas Hardy fan, and I love all of his books, and I've read most of them more than once. Once you get used to the language he does not disappoint!

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5 people found this helpful

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Des
Quiet, Rural Location; But Plenty of Passion!
Reviewed in the United States on March 18, 2016
Little Hintock is a quiet, half-forgotten, backwater, hardly outshone by the slightly bigger Great Hintock, so innocuous and mundane, the local paper covering the region might have been pushed for a story more explosive than 'snail falls off leaf'. In such a setting, you could rationally argue, since nothing significant ever happens, why should anything be of significance? The reason is not the location, though, or it's lushly forested surrounds, it is the characters who make up Hardy's lyrical, perceptive and significant novel.

Grace Melbury, only daughter of the local timber merchant, is sent away by her aspirational father to educate herself with a view to bettering the family name and advancing up the social ladder when she eventually marries. The trouble is, even if you downplay rural heritage, you cannot take your cultural and behavioural influences away. They are ingrained. Thus, highly educated Grace, unreasonably allowing her father to partly re-live his life through her, finds she can take one of two paths: marry her homely, settled childhood friend, Giles Winterbourne, or strike gold with highly educated Dr. Edred Fitzpiers, who comes from an excellent background several notches up the social pecking order.

Her decision, the reason for it and its' ramifications are at the heart of the book. We sympathise with Giles, but as Hardy seems to imply, would he not have been more fulfilled with the warm, caring Marty South whose unrequited love for him is truly moving, since it is hardly central to the book, her life, implicitly, almost as insignificant as Little Hintock?

It is a book about social mores, people doing the wrong things for the right reason and vice versa. But it is also to do with subjects so taboo at the time of writing, when a mere holding of hands was the equivalent to soft corps porn, that euphemism and suggestion have to be used. Notwithstanding that, Hardy makes it clear that both Felice Charmond and Suke Damson experience Dr Fitzpiers in more than a professional capacity and - it is implied - have a smile on their faces after! The very idea! No wonder a bishop burned one of Hardy's books - he, jovially, wrote after: better a book, than me!

There are few rights and wrongs, Grace is considerate, sweet-natured but a prisoner of convention, only able to influence the very edges of social mores. Of course Fitzpiers is depicted as something of a cad, but he ultimately finds a way to partial redemption. As for Mrs Charmond - perhaps a few more of her thoughts and exploits in Europe should have been included, we are left sagely shaking our aging heads about her almost as regularly as Marty South pays homage to Giles.

Behaviour and attitudes that remained in place for hundreds of years have changed so rapidly, it is as if events depicted took place in a parallel universe, the role of women in the 21st Century is different in almost every way, even hair extensions are flaunted, not hidden (Russian hair, by the way, is considered the finest in the world, no doubt President Putin might want some!).

It may be a bygone, more innocent age but the hard work of those woodlanders and their hopes and aspirations give this warm-hearted novel the significance it deserves.

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Kenrick Day
Violence is only alluded to and not described at all ...
Reviewed in the United States on October 31, 2015
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Violence is only alluded to and not described at all. Illicit sexual contacts are similarly handled...........reader can use his imagination. This man could really describe a situation and keep your interest continuously.

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Alexander Emslie
Another great read from the past!!
Reviewed in Australia on January 10, 2021
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I'm a big reader of Thomas Hardy. I love his depictions of a bygone time in a fictional rural setting in south-west England. The word imagery of both the place and the characters is so much more satisfying than having these presented on a screen. Imagination is much more powerful.

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C.S. B.
Good English, fluent story telling.
Reviewed in India on February 28, 2024
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lovely reading.

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A Kernow
One of Thomas Hardy’s best
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 23, 2021
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Beautifully written, and a great plot that holds the interest right to the end.

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三笠日向
面白いです。
Reviewed in Japan on June 11, 2020
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面白かったです。

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Louise Costa Villela
Good price, nice font, light book. A bit stained but nothing serious.
Reviewed in Spain on September 7, 2021
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This edition has a small preface, an introduction and notes on the history of the text. The font is acceptable, the book is light and can be taken anywhere in your bag. The pages are white, not yellowish, so your eyes could hurt a bit if you read for several hours. The price was great, very nice book for not a lot of money. It came with a small stain or scratch on the front cover but nothing serious, hardly noticeable.

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Louise Costa Villela

Good price, nice font, light book. A bit stained but nothing serious.

Reviewed in Spain on September 7, 2021
This edition has a small preface, an introduction and notes on the history of the text. The font is acceptable, the book is light and can be taken anywhere in your bag. The pages are white, not yellowish, so your eyes could hurt a bit if you read for several hours. The price was great, very nice book for not a lot of money. It came with a small stain or scratch on the front cover but nothing serious, hardly noticeable.

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