The Woodlanders

Author	Thomas Hardy
Title	The Woodlanders
Year	1887

Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) was an English poet and novelist. He regarded himself first and foremost as a poet, but the rest of the world find his novels superior to his poetry. Most of his novels are set in the non-existing county of Wessex in the southwest of England.

The Woodlanders is the story of Grace, the only daughter of the rich timber-merchant George Melbury. Her father has given her everything that money could buy, including an education at fashionable (and expensive) boarding schools. But this education left her “as it were in mid-air between two storeys of society” (Ch.XXX): Too good for the village people because of her education, and despised by her fellow students because of her village background.

WARNING: The rest of this article contains spoilers.

The story starts when Grace returns home after completing her education. She was betrothed to Giles Winterborne, a local yeoman and her childhood friend, but she finds it difficult to get used to him again, educated and refined as she has recently become. When Giles loses his house and a large part of his income through an unfortunate series of events beyond his control, Grace (or rather her father) breaks of the engagement. When Dr. Fitzpiers, a member from the local aristocracy, but from an impoverished family, expresses an interest in Grace, Mr. Melbury pushes his daughter into an engagement, and they marry.

The marriage is a failure: Dr. Fitzpiers has an affair with one of the village girls during his engagement to Grace, and starts an affair with Mrs. Charmond, the young widow that lives at the manor house, almost as soon as he and Grace return from their honeymoon.

Dr. Fitzpiers and Mrs. Charmond elope, and Mr. Melbury tries but fails to annul his daughter’s marriage. Meanwhile, Grace appreciates Giles Winterborne more and more, and finally falls in love with him. When Dr. Fitzpiers suddenly returns, Grace flees to Giles. Giles offers her to stay at his place for a few days and then give her a lift to the city. As his house consists of only one room, he will stay in “a place nearby where [he] can stay very well“. What Grace does not know is that Giles will stay outside in the rain, and Giles also hides the fact that he is ill. When Grace finds out it is too late: Giles is dying. She gets him inside the house and goes out to get the only doctor in the neighborhood: Her estranged husband, Dr. Fitzpiers. The doctor can do nothing, and Giles dies.

Grace agrees to her husband’s request to meet again, and they continue meeting and eventually reconcile.

The Woodlanders is a masterpiece, not because of the story or its plot – the story is rather thin, and the plot is almost non-existent -, but because of the poetic description of the woodland in which the story is set, because of the way the story endlessly meanders, and because of Marty South.

Leaving out Marty South will hardly change the story – that’s why she didn’t appear in the summary above – but it would be a severe loss for the novel as a whole.

The novel opens and closes with Marty. In the opening scene, a barber offers money for her beautiful hair. Marty refuses, because she is in love with Giles and wants to look good for him, but when she discovers that Giles is betrothed to (and in love with) Grace, she cuts it off herself and brings it to the barber. Harold Bloom claims he fell in love for the first time while reading this scene – in love with Marty. He “grieved dreadfully when she cut off her beautiful hair in order to sell it“.¹⁾ I won’t go quite as far as Mr. Bloom, but I was disappointed when the focus shifted away from Marty after the first couple of chapters.

In the closing scene, Marty stands alone at Giles’ grave. She has been tending it together with Grace, but when Grace returns to her husband, Marty continues to do so alone, and finds solace in the fact that Giles is finally hers, and hers alone:

‘Now, my own, own love,’ she whispered, ‘you are mine, and on’y mine; for she has forgot ‘ee at last, although for her you died! But I – whenever I get up I’ll think of ‘ee, and whenever I lie down I’ll think of ‘ee. Whenever I plant the young larches I’ll think that none can plant as you planted; and whenever I spit a gad, and whenever I turn the cider wring, I’ll say none could do it like you. If I ever forget your name let me forget home and heaven! … But no, no, my love, I never can forget ‘ee; for you was a good man, and did good things!’

Marty is a solitary girl, without any friends. Only Giles and Grace seem to communicate with her sometimes. She is often found working in the forest, usually near Giles. Like Giles (and unlike the other villagers) she was one with nature. She knew Giles better than anyone else. “Marty South alone, of all the women in Hintock and the world, had approximated to Winterborne’s level of intelligent intercourse with nature. In that respect she had formed the complement to him in the other sex, had lived as his counterpart, had subjoined her thought to his as a corollary.” (Ch.XLIV). She remains loyal to Giles, although Giles hardly notices her, even after his death.

The Woodlanders was read as part of the 2007 winter classics challenge.

¹⁾Harold Bloom, How To Read and Why, p. 187