The Woodlanders – Thomas Hardy by Thomas Hardy

"It was one of those sequestered spots outside the gates of the world."

In the secluded village of Little Hintock, the simple timber merchant Giles Winterborne loves Grace Melbury. But her father pushes her to marry the sophisticated doctor Edred Fitzpiers. The marriage is a disaster, as Fitzpiers cheats on Grace. The novel explores the entangled lives of the villagers, bound to the rhythms of the trees and the tragedy of unrequited devotion.

Hardy considered this his favorite novel. It is a lyrical and poignant story about the conflict between social ambition and the natural life, set in a landscape that is both beautiful and indifferent to human suffering.