Far from the Madding Crowd

Highly controversial in its day because of its blunt look at the sexual values of Victorian society, Thomas Hardy's Far from the Madding Crowd is an exemplification of all the horrors of ill-fated destiny. Spirited and independent Bathsheba Everdene has come to Weatherbury to take up her position as a farmer on the largest estate in the area.

Her courageous presence draws three very different suitors: the seducer-soldier Sergeant Troy; the gentleman farmer Boldwood; and the devoted shepherd, Gabriel Oak. Each, in different ways, complicates her life; then tragedy follows, threatening the stability of the whole community.

The first of his works set in Wessex, Hardy's novel of passion and courtship is imbued with his haunting descriptions of rural life and landscapes, and with his unflinching honesty about sexual relationships.

THOMAS HARDY (1840-1928) was an English poet and novelist. Author of Far From the Madding Crowd, Jude the Obscure, The Return of the Native, Satires of Circumstance, The Trumpet-Major, and Poems of the Past and the Present, he is considered one of the world's most influential literary figures.