Under the Greenwood Tree (Barnes & Noble Digital Library)

Published anonymously in 1872, this is Hardy's second novel – the last to appear without his name and the first to feature his invented county of Wessex.  It is a comic, somewhat idyllic precursor to his later tragedies, focusing on the activities of the Mellstock parish choir and a romance between Dick Dewy and the new schoolmistress, Fancy Day.