I love the way Thomas Hardy writes, so lush and evocative. This book is about a young woman with a very great sense of herself and loses it in a fit of emotion, and the man who loves her steadfastly and honestly with no strings attached. Wonderful book. I could read Hardy all day long. ( )

In "Far from the Madding Crowd" we have Thomas Hardy's 1874 breakthrough publication. This was my introduction to Hardy, and I expected certain aspects of his work, and didn't expect others. For one, I didn't expect the humor that I encountered in early character descriptions, but I was not surprised by the power and depth of the story. Hardy's reputation had preceded him to that extent.

"Far from the Madding Crowd" recounts the tribulations of the young and beautiful - and tragically vain - Bathsheba Everdene, and the three men who love her. Or the two men who loved her, and the rake who married her, or perhaps most accurately, the rake who married her, the inexperienced man who loved her to distraction, and the one faithful stalwart who stood by her through all. For Bathsheba is the most beautiful of women, and men become entranced with her and offer marriage pretty regularly here. The force of the story flows from Bathsheba's initial vanity, her tragic and ill-advised coquetry and first marriage, and how her self-absorption leads to mental breakdown and manslaughter. Hardy presents the plot in a straightforward way, and handles Bathsheba's evolution very skilfully and realistically. The chief characters are fully-realized, memorable creatures. Oak, her constant and ultimate protector, middle-aged Boldwood, driven to distraction by latecoming first love, and the reprobate Sergeant Troy, the tragic first husband, all ring truly; we believe them and understand their motivations. I found the rabble of farm workers to bear no such distinction.

I'm going to reserve judgment on whether this is where to start with Hardy. Plot-wise and resolution-wise, I was gratified by how this book ends. There is a tragic force in this narrative, and I understand it's something Hardy produced regularly. This book ends on a hopeful, life-affirming note, which by reputation, Hardy does not always employ. I'm glad I completed the exercise, but a little sorry that's what it felt like. ( )

The tragic tale of Bathsheba Everdeen and her three suitors. An interesting plot and characters. Great to listen to as an audio book. ( )

This book really didn’t do much for me. I adored the lovely, flowing style of writing Hardy had, the writing it self was almost poetic as the told his story, but the story it self just fell short for me. I didn’t care much for any of the characters, they bored me and I wasn’t ever interested in them at all. Most didn’t have anything catching or striking about them, just a group of people, going on with there day to day lives. The story is about the men who fall in love with a farmer woman, but even the love story it self wasn’t as I thought; it almost lacked emotion and feelings you’d expect. I also found a lot of the story to be predictable and redundant. There are only so many times you can see the same guy beg for a woman’s love and for her to turn him down. It gets boring very quickly, and you want the story to move on and progress faster than it did. Although I guess the slowness of the story can reflect the slowness of the time period, life on the farm and the close-nit community people of the time lived in. And Hardy does an excellent job at that, he is able to portray that, it just had a week cast of characters, that didn’t do much for the story, and in fact probably hindered it.

There isn’t much else I can say, I’m not turned of Hardy yet, I’m going to try and read some of his other work, because his writing style is just beautiful, but this story just wasn’t me. ( )

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/1264840...

I wasn't hugely grabbed by Tess of the d'Urbervilles, but I quite liked this, Hardy's first Wessex novel: a decent enough romantic plot, with some very good descriptive passages relating to the countryside. It seemed a much quicker and more enjoyable read than Tess, possibly because Hardy is not trying to be too Deep and Meaningful. ( )

A very good book, with numerous twists and excellent writing. ( )

Beautiful production, boring story. ( )

Far From the Madding Crowd appeared serially in 1874. Its financial success allowed Hardy to give up architecture and devote all of his energy to writing. It is the story of the headstrong Bathsheba Everdene and the men in her life – Sergeant Troy, Farmer Boldwood, and the patient devoted shepherd Gabriel Oak. According to my old (1967) “Oxford Companion to English Literature,” the main theme of Far From the Madding Crowd (and a favorite of Hardy’s) is “the contrast of a patient and generous devotion with unscrupulous love and with violent passion.” Like some of his other works, Far From the Madding Crowd challenged the sexual and religious conventions of Victorian England. Hardy was condemned as a shocking author in his time, but today he seems almost quaint and is considered a lyrical pastoralist.

Some of the pastoral scenes in Far From the Madding Crowd include milking, beekeeping, harvesting, and the care and tending of sheep including bathing and shearing. In one great veterinary scene, Bathsheba’s sheep get into clover and suffer bloat. Only Gabriel knows how to relieve the bloat and save the sheep by trocharizing their rumens.

Some of the best scenes are those of nature. Hardy’s palpable descriptions of the weather are among my favorite memories of this novel. There is a nice contrast between fire and water. At the beginning of his employment with Bathsheba, Gabriel saves the farm from fire and later he protects the harvest from rain. The clues Mother Nature provides of the impending storm include (Chapter 36) a large wayward toad, a garden slug who comes indoors, and two large black spiders who drop from the ceiling but especially the sheep who “were all grouped in such a way that their tails, without a single exception, were towards that half of the horizon from which the storm threatened.”

Finally, Hardy’s description of the evolution of the love between Gabriel and Bathsheba is an example both of how hard it can be for a contemporary reader to follow something written over 100 years ago as well as a wonderfully accurate description of how love best develops from friendship and understanding rather than merely from simple physical attraction: “Theirs was that substantial affection which arises (if any arises at all) when the two who are thrown together begin first by knowing the rougher sides of each other’s character, and not the best till further on, the romance growing up in the interstices of a mass of hard prosaic reality. This good fellowship – camaraderie – usually occurring through similarity of pursuits, is unfortunately seldom superadded to love between the sexes, because men and women associate not in their labours, but in their pleasures merely. Where, however, happy circumstance permits its development, the compounded feeling proves itself to be the only love which is strong as death – that love which many waters cannot quench, nor the floods drown, beside which the passion usually called by the name is evanescent as steam.” ( )

After a cautious start, due mostly to language of the period, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The English countryside,the weather & the mood and feelings of the characters are described in such detail that I almost felt like I was there amongst the characters and involved in the events.Three very different suitors are vying for the affections of the beautiful, highspirited Bathsheba, who unwittingly manages to become entrapped to more than one of these men. Love proves to be quite fickle with some dire consequences.The further I progressed through the story,the more difficult it was to put down. A dictionary beside me helped with the occaisional bygone word and would recommend this novel to anyone who appreciates a tempestuous love story set in a bygone era where manners and propriety and honour are all important. ( )

Hardy has a reputation for being dull, and depressing. This book was neither, and I found myself engrossed in the story, the characters, the descriptions of the land and the work on it, and by the (admittedly sometimes flowery) language. Oddly I found that the last few chapters seemed to race through a bit quickly, given the start of the book was quite slow, but that aside an excellent read. ( )

An extraordinary work for a 34-year-old writer. Bathsheba Everdene is at the center of things, only dimly aware of her effect on those around her in a compelling story of love and regret. ( )

Hardy's characters are human and full of foibles and disappointments that keep your attention. You sigh when they sigh and get caught up in the world of farmers and haying and harvests and country fairs. A great story and a worthwhile read, I loved it!

http://ktleyed.blogspot.com/2009/01/f... ( )

This is a good story. Great with fantastic ending! it is show the real love end with marriage.

The story was very nice and I enjoyed it so much because the events of the story were connected together in a good way. One part has a great scene on describing the small part of the story, So I could complete it with curiosity to reach the end.

The story about one lady who lives far from the city. Three men fall in love to her, but she will choose the wrong man at the first, then everything will be fixed at the end of the story. ( )

Quite frankly, there are better things to do (and read) with my time. I found this slow and tedious and odious and it has unfortunately put me off reading any of Hardy's works. ( )

Far from the Madding Crowd – for Bathsheba Everdene, scintillating and wayward, for Gabrial (solid as an) Oak, for Troy, dashing and treacherous, and for the sad Mr Boldwood. ( )

Julie Christie on cover

Hardy’s passionate tale of the beautiful, headstrong farmer Bathsheba Everdene and her three
suitors, firmly established the thirty-four-year-old writer as a popular novelist. According to
Virginia Woolf, “The subject was right; the method was right; the poet and the countryman, the
sensual man, the sombre reflective man, the man of learning, all enlisted to produce a book
which . . . must hold its place among the great English novels.” Introducing the fictional name
of “Wessex” to describe Hardy’s legendary countryside, this early masterpiece draws a vivid
picture of rural life in southwest England. --from Amazon.com

I read this many years ago and it is one of Hardy's best novels. ( )

Not a Hardy fan, but Raymond Williams' criticism and Tomalin's biography have taught me to appreciate him at least. This is my favourite, despite what happens to the sheep. Bathsheba is a wonderful, feisty character. ( )

A good book. Quite wordy and a bit laborious in the descriptions of sometimes unimportant things. I mainly enjoyed the exposition of the Agrarian and pastoral society and culture. ( )

I found this to be one of the least depressing Thomas Hardy books I've read. It is set in an idyllic pastoral setting in England, and follows Batsheba, a beautiful independent farmer that has 3 men completly in love with her. Of course, being a Hardy novel there are some dark melodramatic moments. I didn't like it as much as Jude the Obscure, but worth the read. ( )

A great classic whose characters' lives will haunt you for many years afterwards. I'm always amazed at how well Hardy interprets the female pysche.

Loved it!! I thought this was so much better than Jude the Obscure. It took me a couple of chapters to really get into. By the middle of the book I couldn't put it down. A challenge to read because of the language and it does get pretty wordy in terms of Hardy’s description of the scenery and all... Definitely worth it though. Highly recommend to all ages. ( )

From Vintage Scholastic cover: In this powerful novel of love and disillusion, Hardy's beautiful heroine [Bathsheba] is torn between the three men in her life. Tragic, passionate, her romantic involvements have fascinated generations of readers. ( )

The first of Thomas Hardy’s great novels, Far From the Madding Crowd established the author as one of Britain’s foremost writers. It also introduced readers to Wessex, an imaginary county in southwestern England that served as the pastoral setting for many of the author’s later works.

Far From the Madding Crowd tells the story of beautiful Bathsheba Everdene, a fiercely independent woman who inherits a farm and decides to run it herself. She rejects a marriage proposal from Gabriel Oak, a loyal man who takes a job on her farm after losing his own in an unfortunate accident. He is forced to watch as Bathsheba mischievously flirts with her neighbor, Mr. Boldwood, unleashing a passionate obsession deep within the reserved man. But both suitors are soon eclipsed by the arrival of the dashing soldier, Frank Troy, who falls in love with Bathsheba even though he’s still smitten with another woman. His reckless presence at the farm drives Boldwood mad with jealousy, and sets off a dramatic chain of events that leads to both murder and marriage.

A delicately woven tale of unrequited love and regret, Far from the Madding Crowd is also an unforgettable portrait of a rural culture that, by Hardy’s lifetime, had become threatened with extinction at the hands of ruthless industrialization.
I found it rather boring and very predictable, lots of description of the times and places though. ( )