Under the Greenwood Tree Study Tree | Keynote Lecture - Professor Simon Gatrell

2022 will mark the 150th anniversary of Under the Greenwood Tree, perhaps Hardy's most light-hearted novel, but one with hidden depths that become evident upon each re-reading. Its humorous depiction of life in an early Victorian rural community places it within Hardy's 'Novels of Character and Environment'. On the surface, it concerns the trials and tribulations of the Mellstock Quire, based on the quire of which Hardy's own father and grandfather were members, and the machinations of Fancy Day, the new village schoolmistress, and her trio of suitors. It is interwoven with folklore and folksong and underneath can be seen a repudiation of the eugenicist theories espoused by contemporaries such as Grant Allen and Francis Galton. Biological and social harmony undergird the novel which best encapsulates Hardy's notion of 'loving kindness'.
- Introduction, Keynote Lecture - Professor Simon Gatrell
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