Thomas Hardy

The Woodlanders Illustrated Thomas Hardy

The Woodlanders is a novel by Thomas Hardy. It was serialized from May 1886 to April 1887 in Macmillan's Magazine and published in three volumes in 1887. It is one of his series of Wessel novels. Grace has misgivings prior to the marriage as she sees a village woman coming out of his cottage very early in the morning and suspects he has been sleeping with her. She tells her father that she does not want to go on with the marriage and he becomes very angry. Later Fitz piers tell her Sake has been to visit him because she was in agony from toothache and he extracted a molar. No one is left to mourn Giles except a courageous peasant girl named Marty South, who has always loved him. Marty is a plain girl whose only attribute is her beautiful hair. She is persuaded to sell this at the start of the story to a barber who is procuring it for Mrs. Charmed, after Marty realizes that Giles loves Grace and not her.