The Woodlanders
1 journaler for this copy...
Bought last week with two others as a treat.
What exactly is Thomas Hardy trying to say about educated and/or bold women? This is the second Hardy book I read (the first being Far From the Madding Crowd) and actually, surprisingly for a classic, one that I didn't know anything of the plot. So I didn't know how it was going to go. I don't suppose it's a shocker to say this is a Hardy book and someone comes to a bad end.
But for further ramblings I will probably throw in spoilers, so if you read on, you've been warned.
The Woodlanders is set in an out-of-the-way woodland village where people make their money in forestry - timber, bark, cider, apple trees etc etc. You get the picture. They are simple folk who work with nature (again back to Madding Crowd and Gabriel Oak being the ideal character). Melbury is a rich timber guy, who was once embarassed by his lack of book learning. So he decided to make sure it wouldn't happen to his daughter, Grace, and sent her off to boarding school. And planned her life out as if her opinion didn't matter. Feeling guilty about having stolen the women who would be Grace's mother, from her original sweetheart, he decided Grace should marry the son of the rival, Giles Winterbourne. An ideal character who is a good honest soul, really understands nature etc etc. But Grace comes back a refined lady and out of place and Melbury wonders if Giles is now beneath her station and she ought to aim higher. She ends up marrying the doctor, who turns out to be a randy sod and has affairs with a local lass and the rich widow of the area, a vain and inconstant woman (rich and refined = bad) who leads him a merry dance to the continent and then is shot by a jealous ex lover. Grace, in the meantime, realises she doesn't love the doctor, but loves Giles, and they kind of simper at each other whilst hoping a divorce will be possible (turns out the law isn't on their side). She then runs off when the doctor returns, stays in Giles' house in hiding for a few days, and to keep things honourable, he sleps out in some kind of shack. Already ill, the conditions don't help and he ends up dying in his great sacrifice for Grace. She and Marty (a simple maid intune with nature, basically the female of Giles) who was in love with Giles, go to his grave once a week to honour their love for eight months. Then the doctor woos Grace back and she moves on with life and we end the story with Marty faithfully tending the grave as though she is the ideal woman doing the right thing and GRace is just... well, no more than one can expect of a refined and educated woman? Did Hardy just not like women getting above their station?
There's a couple of deaths in this tale, and I suppose Giles is the heroic and uncomplaining good Victorian death. There's also Marty's father earlier in the book, who is terrified of a tree near the house he thinks will collapse and crush him in his bed. His death precipitates Giles' misfortune as a strange clause tied the lease of a lot of the cottages to particular people's lives, and with that man's death, Giles is kicked out of his home. Then there's the old maid at the Melbury's Grammar, who is near death (she hangs on in there) who gets frightened as she signed a silly contract with the doctor to say he could have her oversized head when she died, and she's already spent some of the money. And then this vicious thing with the mantrap at the end. What was that all about? Tim Tang has recently married Suke (the local girl who had a fling with the doctor) and when he finds out she is attracted to the doctor, he gets a mantrap, which are illegal at this point and hides it in the wood hoping to crush the doctor the night before Tim and his new wife emmigrate to New Zealand. Just... what? What are we saying about the uneducated, down-to-earth types here? Mind you, I enjoyed the story even though I am still left undecided about a lot of things.
But for further ramblings I will probably throw in spoilers, so if you read on, you've been warned.
The Woodlanders is set in an out-of-the-way woodland village where people make their money in forestry - timber, bark, cider, apple trees etc etc. You get the picture. They are simple folk who work with nature (again back to Madding Crowd and Gabriel Oak being the ideal character). Melbury is a rich timber guy, who was once embarassed by his lack of book learning. So he decided to make sure it wouldn't happen to his daughter, Grace, and sent her off to boarding school. And planned her life out as if her opinion didn't matter. Feeling guilty about having stolen the women who would be Grace's mother, from her original sweetheart, he decided Grace should marry the son of the rival, Giles Winterbourne. An ideal character who is a good honest soul, really understands nature etc etc. But Grace comes back a refined lady and out of place and Melbury wonders if Giles is now beneath her station and she ought to aim higher. She ends up marrying the doctor, who turns out to be a randy sod and has affairs with a local lass and the rich widow of the area, a vain and inconstant woman (rich and refined = bad) who leads him a merry dance to the continent and then is shot by a jealous ex lover. Grace, in the meantime, realises she doesn't love the doctor, but loves Giles, and they kind of simper at each other whilst hoping a divorce will be possible (turns out the law isn't on their side). She then runs off when the doctor returns, stays in Giles' house in hiding for a few days, and to keep things honourable, he sleps out in some kind of shack. Already ill, the conditions don't help and he ends up dying in his great sacrifice for Grace. She and Marty (a simple maid intune with nature, basically the female of Giles) who was in love with Giles, go to his grave once a week to honour their love for eight months. Then the doctor woos Grace back and she moves on with life and we end the story with Marty faithfully tending the grave as though she is the ideal woman doing the right thing and GRace is just... well, no more than one can expect of a refined and educated woman? Did Hardy just not like women getting above their station?
There's a couple of deaths in this tale, and I suppose Giles is the heroic and uncomplaining good Victorian death. There's also Marty's father earlier in the book, who is terrified of a tree near the house he thinks will collapse and crush him in his bed. His death precipitates Giles' misfortune as a strange clause tied the lease of a lot of the cottages to particular people's lives, and with that man's death, Giles is kicked out of his home. Then there's the old maid at the Melbury's Grammar, who is near death (she hangs on in there) who gets frightened as she signed a silly contract with the doctor to say he could have her oversized head when she died, and she's already spent some of the money. And then this vicious thing with the mantrap at the end. What was that all about? Tim Tang has recently married Suke (the local girl who had a fling with the doctor) and when he finds out she is attracted to the doctor, he gets a mantrap, which are illegal at this point and hides it in the wood hoping to crush the doctor the night before Tim and his new wife emmigrate to New Zealand. Just... what? What are we saying about the uneducated, down-to-earth types here? Mind you, I enjoyed the story even though I am still left undecided about a lot of things.
