Story summary
Samenvatting van De bosbewoners
- 8 min. leestijd
- 10 parts
- Binnenkort te beluisteren
A girl cuts off her hair for a rich lady's wig, and a timber merchant's plan for his daughter starts to unravel.
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De bosbewoners in het kort
Samenvatting: 8 min leestijd
- Leestijd
- Ongeveer 8 h 55 min7 h 5 min fast, 10 h 35 min slow
- Lengte
- 127.000 woorden
- Bibliotheekniveau
- Gemiddeld longer sentences, everyday words
- Voor het eerst verschenen
- 1887by Thomas Hardy
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). Hoelang het duurt om de klassiekers te lezen · Bijgewerkt
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De bosbewoners in short
The Woodlanders follows a small circle of people in one hidden village. A timber merchant vows to repay an old wrong by marrying his daughter to a modest apple grower. Then pride in her schooling makes him break it, and he gives her to a clever doctor, who soon drifts toward a wealthy lady.
What De bosbewoners is about
What would you give up for a sovereign, or for two? In a dark cottage in the woods, a young woman named Marty South is offered gold for her hair, and her answer sets a whole village in motion.
Thomas Hardy wrote The Woodlanders in the 1880s, and set it in the hidden hamlet of Little Hintock. Everyone there is related, everyone watches everyone, and a lease on a cottage can decide a life. You will meet a timber merchant with a bold plan for his daughter, a quiet apple grower who loves her, a bored young doctor and a lonely rich lady. Listen for how seldom the people making a choice understand what they are choosing.
Voor wie is het?. You will enjoy this if you love rural settings, tangled love stories and quiet, observant storytelling. It suits readers who like village talk and ordinary people arguing over duty, money and old loyalties.
The story in 10 parts
Key idea 1 · free to read
A girl sells her hair on a winter night
A town barber named Percombe asks the way to Little Hintock. He has come for the hair of Marty South, who sits by the fire making thatching spars with a billhook. Her father is ill upstairs, and she works through the night to earn the timber merchant's rate.
The barber works for a wealthy lady, Mrs. Charmond, whose hair matches Marty's shade exactly. He offers a sovereign, then two. Marty refuses and says her hair is her own. Then she carries her spars out in the small hours and overhears Melbury, the timber merchant, say he means to marry his daughter to Giles Winterborne.
Marty has loved Giles in silence. She goes home and cuts her own hair off. The next morning Giles says her shorn head looks like an apple on a gatepost, and she runs away in shame.
Marty gives up what is hers, not for money but because love has already been taken from her.
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Melbury plans his daughter's future
What was Melbury doing in his garden in the dark?
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Grace returns home a changed young woman
Grace Melbury arrives from school in Sherton market.
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A doctor with a restless mind arrives
The village whispers about a new doctor named Edgar Fitzpiers.
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The tree, the leases and Giles's loss
John South, Marty's father, is dying of fear.
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Midsummer Eve and a hasty courtship
On Midsummer Eve, village girls go into the wood to sow hemp seed and call up the shapes of their future husbands.
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The wedding and a house full of neighbors
The wedding dress arrives in a flat box from the fashionable town of Sandbourne.
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A lonely lady and a doctor who wanders
One night a message calls Fitzpiers to Hintock House.
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What the novel says about class, education and law
The Woodlanders is full of people pulled between where they were born and where they wish to be.
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How the woods tell the story
Hardy tells the story in a calm, watching voice that moves from kitchen to treetop.
Read all 10 key ideas now
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Characters, plot and themes
Main characters
- Grace Melbury The timber merchant's educated daughter, caught between her father's hopes, her old friend Giles and a husband she hardly knows.
- Giles Winterborne A quiet apple and cider grower who loves Grace, knows the woods deeply, and depends on leases that may be lost.
- George Melbury A self-made timber merchant who loves his daughter fiercely and tries to repay an old wrong through her marriage.
- Marty South A poor, sharp-eyed young woodworker who sells her hair, supports her sick father, and loves Giles in silence.
- Edgar Fitzpiers A clever, restless young doctor from an old family who studies philosophy and follows his feelings wherever they lead.
- Felice Charmond The wealthy, lonely owner of Hintock House, who wants company and admiration and whose moods change like the weather.
How it ends (spoiler)
Giles falls ill and dies after giving Grace shelter in his hut, and Mrs. Charmond is shot abroad by a former lover. Grace and Marty mourn at Giles's grave and come to know each other. A man-trap set for Fitzpiers catches Grace's dress instead, and she lets him back into her life. Marty remains alone at the grave, vowing her loyalty.
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Vragen over De bosbewoners
What is The Woodlanders about?
It tells of a timber merchant who plans to marry his educated daughter to a humble apple grower, then changes course for a doctor. The story follows love, class and loyalty among the people of a woodland village.
Who is Marty South in The Woodlanders?
Marty is a poor young woman who makes thatching spars to support her sick father. She loves Giles Winterborne quietly, and she sells her hair to a barber, which sets later events in motion.
Where and when is The Woodlanders set?
It takes place in the fictional villages of Little and Great Hintock, in the wooded countryside of Hardy's Wessex, in the nineteenth century. The book follows the year in orchards, copses and timber yards.
Is The Woodlanders a true story?
No, it is a novel written by Thomas Hardy in the 1880s. The characters and villages are invented, though the woodland trades, old leases and village customs reflect real rural life of the time.
What is the main message of The Woodlanders?
The book shows how class, property and social ambition shape private feeling, and how quiet loyalty can be overlooked. It suggests that natural goodness and a deep bond with the land matter more than polish or rank.
Verwijs naar deze uitgave
Hardy, Thomas. The Woodlanders. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-woodlanders.
Hardy, T. (2026). The woodlanders. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-woodlanders (Original work published 1887)
Hardy, Thomas. The Woodlanders. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-woodlanders.
@book{hardy2026woodlanders,
author = {Hardy, Thomas},
title = {The Woodlanders},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-woodlanders},
note = {First published 1887}
}
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