With not one but two secret engagements to contend with, schoolteacher Fancy Day's attentions are split between Dick Dewey, a member of the church choir and string group, and Mr. Maybold, the new vicar, remarkable both for his patronage of Fancy and for his controversial decision to abolish the church's musical string accompaniment.

Under the Greenwood Tree is the first of Thomas Hardy's pastoral "Wessex" novels, and has been adapted for the stage and screen, most recently in 2005 by Ashley Pharaoh, co-creator and writer of the BBC One series Life on Mars.

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