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307 ratings, 3.72 average rating, 25 reviews
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published
May 28th 1981
by Penguin Classic
binding
Paperback, 464 pages
isbn
0140431454
(isbn13: 9780140431452)
description
Giles Winterbourne and Grace Melbury were virtually promised to one another; now her father has other plans, forcing her marriage to Edred Fitzpiers...more
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 456)
Has a copy to sell/swap
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Read in August, 2007
recommends it for:
british lit fans
So I read this book because I love Hardy's work--Tess of the d'Urbervilles, Jude the Obscure, and Far from the Madding Crowd. The Woodlanders isn't as famous as these three.
It's interesting to read Hardy and D.H. Lawrence together. Both focus on themes of marital/sexual alienation, discovery, and rebellion, and have great sympathy for women. Both were also poets, and Hardy went so far as to shun novel-writing for poetry later in his life, believing many of his novels, because they were seri...more
It's interesting to read Hardy and D.H. Lawrence together. Both focus on themes of marital/sexual alienation, discovery, and rebellion, and have great sympathy for women. Both were also poets, and Hardy went so far as to shun novel-writing for poetry later in his life, believing many of his novels, because they were seri...more
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I have read this book twice. It is excellent. Very atmospheric. It is set in Little Hintock, a remote wooded village in Blackmoor Vale in his fiction Wessex, in the early part of the second half of the 19th century. It is a good example of Hardy's feeling that "happiness is but a mere episode in the general drama of pain".
I realized the other day, that there is an element of its plot that is similar to that of Rapunzel (where Dame Gothel cut short Rapunzel's braided hair and ca...more
I realized the other day, that there is an element of its plot that is similar to that of Rapunzel (where Dame Gothel cut short Rapunzel's braided hair and ca...more
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Read in July, 2008
Great Hardy book, as always. This one has the usual--pastoral setting, wealth versus poverty, class status, heavy foreshadowing. I hadn't read any Thomas Hardy in a while (I think I re-read The Mayor of Casterbridge last winter, maybe), and it's always a pleasure to come back to him.
Warning: as with most Penguin classics, you don't want to read the introduction first, since it contains major plot spoilers. Annoying! Some of us are reading for pleasure, not study--save it for an afterw...more
Warning: as with most Penguin classics, you don't want to read the introduction first, since it contains major plot spoilers. Annoying! Some of us are reading for pleasure, not study--save it for an afterw...more
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Read in May, 2008
This was a set book for my English O'Level studies and it put me off Thomas Hardy for over 20 years. But in recent years I have read and loved 5 of Hardy's novels. Now it's time to give The Woodlanders a second chance...
Well, it was a great book after all, perhaps just not for a 15 year-old schoolboy! Perhaps not as good as some of Hardy's other novels, but a great book nonetheless. I was slightly disappointed that some of the characters, such as Marty South, were not developed as much as I ...more
Well, it was a great book after all, perhaps just not for a 15 year-old schoolboy! Perhaps not as good as some of Hardy's other novels, but a great book nonetheless. I was slightly disappointed that some of the characters, such as Marty South, were not developed as much as I ...more
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Read in March, 2008
Classic Brit Lit, struggle of the classes and urban vs. rural. But I loved this quote from 1887:
"There was nothing remarkable in her dress just now, beyond a natural fitness, and a style that was recent for the streets of Sherton. But, had it been the reverse, and quite striking, it would have meant just as little. For there can be hardly anything less connected with a woman's personality than drapery which she has neither designed, manufactured, cut, sewed, nor even seen, except by ...more
"There was nothing remarkable in her dress just now, beyond a natural fitness, and a style that was recent for the streets of Sherton. But, had it been the reverse, and quite striking, it would have meant just as little. For there can be hardly anything less connected with a woman's personality than drapery which she has neither designed, manufactured, cut, sewed, nor even seen, except by ...more
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Read in December, 2007
This is my first Hardy in a long time. I forgot how wonderful his language is (something about being a poet. .. ). This story in particular, the characters' lives are so interwoven with their environment that the flowery language is particularly appropriate. It becomes alternately stark or warm, flush or barren. I was expecting it to be more depressing than it was (c'mon, it's Hardy!), but was pleasantly surprised that I only cried once or twice.
As with so much victorian literature, th...more
As with so much victorian literature, th...more
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Read in July, 2008
This was a tough one to get into, I was still struggling around page 60. However, "The Woodlanders" was a gift from someone who told me it was one of his favorite books. I had no choice but to plough and am truly glad I persevered, as I really grew to love it.
It's a story of lost love, broken promises, unrequited love, a tragic tale of its time. Suffice to say, I'm perfectly happy with being born in the 20th century!!
It's a story of lost love, broken promises, unrequited love, a tragic tale of its time. Suffice to say, I'm perfectly happy with being born in the 20th century!!
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Not as good as I remember other Hardy novels (until I picked this up I had been under the impression I'd read them all)...it was a little more predictable, a little less gripping, and I thought the ending was weak, but what can I say...it is still at terrific read full of beautifully put and insightful observations. I know everyone already knows it but Hardy is really brilliant and is one of my all-time favourites.
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Read in January, 2003
recommends it for:
no one in particular
A book I wouldn’t be caught dead with. It is one of those things that take you back to school, a book you know you only have to read to get a decent grade. So how come I liked it so much I talked about it months later. It’s too detailed to explain but yes, you should get yourself a copy, only if you’re really bored though. Really bored!
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Read in May, 2007
recommends it for:
calling all Thomas Hardy fans...
I love Thomas Hardy. This book seals the deal. Although I initially doubted his choice of opening female figure versus the female protagonist that dominated most of the story, it all came full circle in the end. This book truly illustrates the style of British rural life Hardy so movingly eulogizes in his novels through narrative.
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Not the plot but the description of scenes and atmosphere is brilliant. Hardy tells a story which is not very much exciting, much of the same; love, hope, happiness, frustration, depression, hopelessness and death, what we've always read by him, but how he narrate the story atracts...
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This is not as well-known as Hardy's other novels, but this one is up there as my favorite. I also found out it was Hardy's favorite too. One of those great stories about love vs. social status in a small community. Beautiful.
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Read in October, 2008
Hardy at his best. Depressing, insightful, lovely, realistic. The characters in this work typify the kinds of love and fidelity in human relationships that fill the world with joy and pain.
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Read in October, 2008
This book is a mixed pleasure in that it ends in a rather unsatisfactory way but the prose is beautiful and the feeling for the woods as a living character in the story is incredible.
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That finds me with yet another Hardy novel... THis was a good book..I love the tragedy and his absolute refusal to let the main characters have happy endings.
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recommends it for:
Classics Fanatics
You'd never know a classic would have such drama and scandals (wrapped up in a polite old-English certainly)
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I know I liked it, but can't remember a thing about it, unlike the other Hardy books I've read
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Like almost all Thomas Hardy books, it is kind of depressing, but very well written.
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Doesn't it mean something that I read this and can barely remember it?
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Read in January, 2008
recommends it for:
hardy fans
This is typical Hardy genius, a deep compassion and stunning plot twists.
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