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"Under the Greenwood Tree" is an enchanting, lyrical and vivid novel by Thomas Hardy (1840-1928). It is an idealised pastoral written with light humour and sincere love for its characters. The book may seem an idyll in prose, yet, it is only at first sight. Side by side with the tender and romantic love of Dick and Fancy there arises the dramatic lot of life of the village church choir, which gives up its place to the organ the way old England falls into oblivion in the face of the active offensive of modernisation. And Thomas Hardy sorrowfully notes that this new world is devoid of that enchantment and romance which blossomed out "under the greenwood tree".