<br><br> Can't agree more. And I love the description of Oak. He sounds like a satyr, some woodland creature, encountering the goddess Diana. <br><br> I think of the way it might be written now, all the attention to pov and keeping them from going off to the tv. Everything is climax now; the old want to be young forever, no sense of seasons or being part of the earth. No wonder they're all on antidepressants.<br><br>Hardy--like Gabriel Oak--is the best of all.<br>