From the Bookshelf of Works of Thomas Hardy…

Far From The Madding Crowd

Thomas Hardy

Start date: March 17, 2024

Finish date: May 30, 2024

Discussion: Far from the Madding Crowd

Discussion leader: Bionic Jean

Why we're reading this: Our second annual group read of a novel by Thomas Hardy
[close] Our second annual group read of a novel by Thomas Hardy

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Far from the Madding Crowd

Far From the Madding Crowd 5th Thread Chapter 39 - 47
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last updated May 30, 2024 02:35PM

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What Members Thought

May 24, 2024 Kathleen rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: setting-england, boxall-1001-2024

“Love is a possible strength in an actual weakness.”

I came to this book with complex feelings about Thomas Hardy. I marvel at his gift for description--not just of pastoral scenes but of the intricacies of personality. And I actually love his tragic side. But sometimes I find his prose a little hard to follow, maybe most when he is waxing poetic.

Fortunately so far, all of my Hardy reading has been in Goodreads groups, where others could help me along. That was certainly the case with this one, “Love is a possible strength in an actual weakness.”

I came to this book with complex feelings about Thomas Hardy. I marvel at his gift for description--not just of pastoral scenes but of the intricacies of personality. And I actually love his tragic side. But sometimes I find his prose a little hard to follow, maybe most when he is waxing poetic.

Fortunately so far, all of my Hardy reading has been in Goodreads groups, where others could help me along. That was certainly the case with this one, read in its original serial form, a chapter a day, with the Works of Thomas Hardy group. I learned a tremendous amount from Jean and Bridget and everyone who participated, and gained a deeper appreciation of Thomas Hardy and his talents.

Hardy tells us here about Bathsheba Everdine, a newcomer to his Wessex village of Weatherbury. Throughout the story, the locals aren’t sure about this addition to their rural community, and readers have their doubts too. She’s young and rash. Is she vain and thoughtless too? One thing is clear: she’s beautiful, and the story is about three men who fall in love with her. The first is Gabriel Oak, a bailiff turned farmer turned sheep rancher turned bailiff again. Life doesn’t always smile on him but he’s level-headed and kind. The next is an older, respectable landowner who has never been in love before--Farmer Boldwood. The third is the dashing army corporal, Francis Troy, a hot-headed ladies-man.

So it’s a story of these three fighting over Bathsheba, each in their own very different ways. But it’s also a story of the charm of this rural town and its people, the struggles of farming life, how love can play out in dramatically different ways, and the mysteries of fate and destiny.

I wasn’t sure about this book at first, but it may be the one that moved me solidly into the Hardy fan club. I love what he did with Bathsheba. She keeps you guessing. And one minute you chastise Hardy for throwing out misogynistic tropes about her, but the next you think he’s doing it just to shoot them down. I’m still not sure, but I do know a wonderful reading experience when I have one. ...more

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Feb 10, 2020 Janelle rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2020

3 and a half stars. The bonus half for the character of Gabriel Oak being such a lovely man. Not my favourite Hardy, the story is fairly obvious, Bathsheba is an annoying unlikeable heroine but young. As usual the pleasure is reading the details of how people live and work.

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Apr 27, 2020 Brian Fagan rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I've been reading Hardy for over 30 years, and it was exciting to pull this one out again. The copy I have is a Bantam paperback published in 1971, and it was my wife's when she was in high school, with her name neatly printed on the outer paper edges, so I cherish the physical book as well as the novel therein !

Far From the Madding Crowd was published in 1874, his fourth novel. 15 years before I started reading Hardy, I saw the 1967 film version at the weekend campus film series in college aro ...more

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Dec 26, 2022 Claudia rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: hardy

A pastoral symphony with delicate and beautifully poetical scenery descriptions.

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Apr 19, 2025 Kelly rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, romance, england

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I took a long break in the last 2/3 of the novel, but once I picked it back up again I really couldn't put it down!

Five stars was my final decision, despite a few reservations. Hardy does take some getting used to, even between days of reading. Some days I have the patience and even look forward to slowing down and really taking in his gorgeous depictions of the natural landscape and the architectural details of agrarian buildings. The days I really allowed myself to relax and not rush, opening I took a long break in the last 2/3 of the novel, but once I picked it back up again I really couldn't put it down!

Five stars was my final decision, despite a few reservations. Hardy does take some getting used to, even between days of reading. Some days I have the patience and even look forward to slowing down and really taking in his gorgeous depictions of the natural landscape and the architectural details of agrarian buildings. The days I really allowed myself to relax and not rush, opening my internal eye to imagining his words, it was evident what an incredible wordsmith creates such rich internal images that sit with you and just feel "right." Yet there were a few scenes that I was impatient with his details - a couple come to mind in particular.

First was the chapter of rustic folk speaking in dialect in a malthouse. While it was clearly so well wrought, it was seemingly endless and didn't really move the plot forward notably. Another scene was (the albeit very sad) scene of Fanny struggling to make it to the workhouse before she died. I'm not sure how I would have changed this though - it was very necessary to illustrate how idyllic country life is not always so romantic as we might imagine.

As many reviewers point out, Bathsheba can be totally exasperating. She is admirable in her ability to be independent and not conform to all the expectations of women at that time, but she is still barely twenty, and rash in her decisions to the extreme. She clearly realizes how much her impulsivity impacts others like Boldwood and Oak, and by the conclusion is now someone who smiles much less, but appears to have realized the power she holds over others both intentionally and otherwise. She herself has also been the victim of Troy's impulsive behaviour and was deeply hurt, and her pride wounded. She said she needed taming at the outset, and Troy stepped in to provide that when Gabriel Oak could not.

I do tire of Victorian norms of beauty being of the ultimate importance, and all that is required for falling in deep love at a moment and a marriage proposal. Bathsheba was very beautiful, and so it created for her a position of deciding between three suitors. This created the story in essence, yet again, here it is: women, beauty, marriage. Even for a heroine who is wildly independent, willful and determined to be a "Mistress" running a successful farm, the plot is simply about how to tame and marry her.

Now, the sub-plot of Fanny is slightly different - Dickensian perhaps. Here we have a peasant member of rural society without much choice in how her life will play out or how she will be taken advantage of. It's tragic and very meaningful, yet at the time the plot was minimized due to being scandalous. This was my first Hardy, and it had a typical "comedic" ending in marriage - but tinged with the cost to many lives of achieving this outcome. I know many have said it's a good place to start with Hardy because others like Tess, while very good, are much more bleak. I'm glad this is how it worked out for me, because I can see how the story of Fanny was just as important and an intriguing aspect of the plot I would have enjoyed being more fully fleshed out. I am sure that will be the case with later Hardy novels. ...more

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