Customer Reviews

Far from the Madding Crowd (Signet Classics)

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Over the years I've read most of Hardy's novels and decided recently to re-read the great Wessex novels in the order in which they were written. This is the first of them and Hardy's first 'mature' novel.

In breathtakingly evocative language Hardy writes a paean to times he knew were changing. He is writing at a period when the old country ways are at war with the new. Bathsheba Everdene is, in her way, one of the 'new' people. And Sergeant Troy, out of harmony with the village of his birth and 'a man to whom memories were an encumbrance', is too. So one would think they were meant for each other. Hardy shows us, though, that there is something about the old ways that is worth saving; this is personified by Gabriel Oak, who is staunch like his name. His steadfastness symbolizes the old ways, the ways in which loyalty, integrity, modest ambitions and decency are lasting values. One is led to think, perhaps, in the middle of the book that the new ways will be a path out of the seemingly simple and ineffective country ways, where people live their lives by the seasons, know their rôle in their society, get along civilly with each other, all of which might seem to lead to a certain lack of excitement. When Gabriel characterizes his proposal of marriage to Bathsheba by saying '. . . at home by the fire, whenever you look up, there I shall be--and whenever I look up, there will be you', this is taken by Bathsheba as a recipe for boredom. She comes to understand with time that this sort of domestic harmony is a haven from the harms of the world.

And so, while writing about changing times, Hardy also writes a prose poem about married love. He was 33 when he wrote it and ironically it was the success of this book that gave him the means to finally get married to his dear fiancée, Emma Gifford. And it launched him on a series that was to become a dominant part of his life's work.

The book ends with a neat summation, quoted in the title of this review, by one of the farm laborers, Joseph Poorgrass, who proposes a perhaps unromantic means of accepting our time among our fellow-men: '. . . since 'tis as 'tis, why, it might have been worse, and I feel my thanks accordingly.'

FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD, the first of Thomas Hardy's 'Wessex' novels, tells the story of a small troupe of farmers and their workers in a sheep-farming community in the fictitious county of 'Wessex'.

Gabriel Oak has been a shepherd since his teenage years, as his father was before him, but he's moved up and purchased, on credit, his own farm. The work is hard, but he is confident that he will succeed, and takes pride in being his own man. Then one day, a new woman arrives in town. Bathsheeba Everdene is beautiful, headstrong, intelligent, but incurably vain; Farmer Oak falls in love with her immediately. A few months later, he proposes, and is utterly rejected. Bathsheeba moves on to care for her dying uncle, and take over his farm. Gabriel continues farming - until tragedy strikes.

He and Bathsheeba will cross paths again, this time not as lovers, but as mistress and servant. Bathsheeba's beauty, vanity and impetuousness leave a trail of carnage in her wake, and Gabriel can only watch on as lives are destroyed, farms are ruined, and his own heart is crushed repeatedly.

Hardy is famous for his fatalism, and this is displayed no more than in the character of Bathsheba Everdene. She is not an evil person, as the above summary would suggest - but her stunning beauty and fierce intelligence combine with her vanity and impulsivity to create something like a force of nature, and though she means only good she seems to be able to do nothing but wrong by those who care for her. She has no more control over her nature than she does over the weather. One of the most interesting aspects of this character is that her vices - vanity, impulsivity, which Hardy attributes to her being young and beautiful - lead to the downfall of others, but she is continuously saved from downfall by her own intelligence and inner personal strength.

REal tragedy finally does strike Bathsheba, but rather than let it destroy her as retribution for her wicked ways, she grows from it. We may not be able to escape the hardship of life, Hardy seems to be saying, but we can grow and prosper by learning from it.

This was a fantastically entertaining book. The only warning that I could give with it is that it is slow-moving. The action comes in fits and spurts, and Hardy has a penchant for elaborate descriptions of the countryside, for farmhouses, churches and festivals. They are beautifully written, but take time to digest fully. Highly recommended.

I've always condidered myself to be sort of an optimist; so it is really odd that I've always really loved Thomas Hardy's books. I count Tess of the D'Urbervilles and Jude the Obscure among my very favorites, and whether or not it is my favorite, I think that The Mayor of Casterbridge is marvelously written. Still though, reading all of that fatalism and cynicism can be a little much. It was really nice to pick up this novel and not read so many grim scenes.

Far From the Madding Crowd is a pretty simple love story driven by the characters. First, there is Bathsheba Everdeen. She's vain, naive, and she makes the stupidest decisions possible. Yet, you still like her. Then there are the three guys who all want her: Troy who's like the bad guy straight out of a Raphael Sabatini novel, Boldwood who's an old lunatic farmer, and Gabriel Oak who is a simple farmer and is basically perfect. The reader sees what should happen in the first chapter, and it takes Bathsheeba the whole book to see it. The characters really make the book. The reader really has strong feelings about them, and Hardy puts them in situations where you just don't know what they're going to do. The atmosphere that Hardy creates is (as is in all of Hardy's novel) amazing and totally original. I don't think any other author (except Wallace Stegner in America) has ever evoked a sense of place as well as Hardy does. Overall, Far from the Madding Crowd is a great novel. I probably don't like it quite as well as some of his others, but I still do think it deserved five stars.

Thomas Hardy is able to entice you with his country atmosphere, well-developed character's, and embelished complexity and corruption. You have Bathsheba the temptrest, Gabriel Oak the Archangel, Farmer Boldwood the very stern conservative type, and Frank Troy the horse that fools the foolish. Hardy used these names to symbolize these certain historical figures and meanings. He wanted you to viualize and develop the character's personalties before reading. This would then give you a sense of why the chaos is occurring throughout the book. Bathsheba is very beautiful and catches the eye of a man where ever she goes. She doesn't really realize the effect she has on a man's feelings and emotions. She's very self-centered, but passionate at the same time. She's looking for romance, and in the process of doing so she plays with most of the mens hearts. Gabriel Oak is very kind and generous. The most unfortunate disasters happen to him, but he still stays the giving person he is. He's willing to take the bad with the good. Farmer Boldwood is very religious and old-fashion in his ways. You sympathize for this man throughout the book. Frank Troy is very attractive to women, and likes to play with women's feelings. He makes the whole book so appealing because his shift in love interests are so inadequate. The book is based upon relationships between the character's, but focuses on argricutural surroundings that bring forth several different audiences.Hardy had many restrictions on how this book could be appropriate, but found a way to capture the romantic actions and emotions of the couples.It's a wonderful piece of literature, and leads into the beginning of the Romanticism Era.

Thomas Hardy's masterwork of 1874 is a compelling story that becomes increasingly unputdowneable. Notwithstanding the occasional burst of sexism, Hardy still exhibits enough knowledge of human nature to make his characters alive and sympathetic to us. This holds true for both their cataclysmic moments of life-change, and also their small, relatively unimportant, actions.

But I can't pretend that it's easy to read. The narrative is intermittently broken by long bouts of West Country dialect. When reading these episodes, one tends to glaze over, so impenetrable are the vocabulary and accents. And the triviality! But don't just charge on. By all means skim over these knotty bits, but flip back and nail them down before moving on. The Dorset rustics function like a Greek chorus. Their opinions, rumours, actions, are important background texture and sometimes catalysts. They may perhaps be seen as the "Madding Crowd" of the title.

And now to the "Far" bit. I will resist plot summary, and observe that the three protagonists' allegorical names echo Hardy's cultural preoccupations, which come out in plentiful allusions: Bathsheba = Biblical. Troy = Greek mythology. Oak = Englishness (first name Gabriel is again Biblical). The book is stuffed with these three types of allusions, intermixed, in Hardy's painterly style, with elemental, lyrical, elegiac descriptions and narrative.

There's a particularly good introduction by Rosemarie Morgan in the Penguin Classic edition. It relates Hardy's mixing of high and low elements to Victorian tastes.

This beautiful book fully merits its classical status. I avoided novels for years, but am glad to have read this one.

Why?--Because there is the class struggle, the positioning for marriage, sexual passion, and jealousy and characters that relate to the common man. There are too many coincidences in this book and there seems to miss the tragic inevitability of Tess or Jude but still a wonderful book.

Far From the Madding Crowd is one of Hardy's weaker efforts. The character development, which was so strong in The Mayor of Casterbridge and Jude the Obscure, is lacking here. Hardy pays little attention to the one character that really matters in this book, Gabriel Oak. The plot is contrived and the ending is incredibly hokie. This is one of Hardy's earlier novels and it is apparent that, at that stage of his career, he was far from perfecting his craft.

Thomas Hardy weaves a rich pastoral tale that examines the foibles of humanity: pride, vanity, greed, passion...and gives us a touching love story with a realistic ending. Set in Hardy's Wessex country, the setting is as much a character as his cornucopia of delightful human characters. What I love best about Hardy is how his setting evokes (like a Greek god) story. Through beautiful description, imagery and evokative language, this is not the sort of book you want to race through to see what happens. But to read slowly and savored like sipping a dark, rich coffee. Let it linger.

Thomas Hardy is able to entice you with his country atmosphere, well-developed character's, and embelished complexity and corruption. You have Bathsheba the temptrest, Gabriel Oak the Archangel, Farmer Boldwood the very stern conservative type, and Frank Troy the horse that fools the foolish. Hardy used these names to symbolize these certain historical figures and meanings. He wanted you to visualize and develop the character's personalties before reading. This would then give you a sense of why the chaos is occurring throughout the book. Bathsheba is very beautiful and catches the eye of a man wherever she goes. She doesn't really realize the effect she has on a man's feelings and emotions. She's very self-centered, but passionate at the same time. She's looking for romance, and in the process of doing so she plays with most of the mens hearts. Gabriel Oak is very kind and generous. The most unfortunate disasters happen to him, but he still stays the giving person he is. He's willing to take the bad with the good. Farmer Boldwood is very religious and old-fashion in his ways. You sympathize for this man throughout the book. Frank Troy is very attractive to women, and likes to play with women's feelings. He makes the whole book so appealing because his shift in love interests are so inadequate. The book is based upon relationships between the character's, but focuses on argricutural surroundings that bring forth several different audiences.Hardy had many restrictions on how this book could be appropriate, but found a way to capture the romantic actions and emotions of the couples.It's a wonderful piece of literature, and leads into the beginning of the Romanticism Era.

I thought this classic was a great book to read. I feel it was well written, and that Hardy gave great detail in portraying his characters especially considering the era he was writing in. I would recommend this book to anyone to read because of how it can capture the reader.