Thomas Hardy called The Woodlanders the novel of his he loved best as a story. In a remote Dorset hamlet where everyone lives by the trees, a timber merchant educates his daughter above her station and marries her to a doctor who despises the place — while a man who plants saplings and holds his tongue loves her in silence. Around them move a fine lady from the great house and a barber hunting a woman's hair for profit. Here the woods are not scenery but the very economy of life. This edition presents the complete and unabridged novel, newly typeset and illustrated with 50 full-page color plates.