Far From Madding Crowd: Thomas Hardy

This book follows Bathsheba Everdene and her journey as a farmer in rural England; after her are Boldwood, a wealthy farmer, Sergeant Troy, a seducer, and Gabriel Oak, a shepherd. Far From the Madding Crowd was adapted first for a serialization, and then re-compiled into a novel form. I have whited out most of the spoilers, but be careful.

I've always loved Thomas Hardy's language; he was, after all, a poet, and his prose reflects this. The setting and landscape were described vividly and sometimes beautifully. I was grateful, though, for the footnotes and notes; though his Victorian readers would have known what he was talking about, much of the context is missing for more contemporary readers.

This is very much a character study, of Gabriel, of Bathsheba, of Boldwood. [In fact, most of his books are character-driven]. Bathsheba is a strong woman who seems very modern; upon the disillusionment of her marriage to Troy she says: "that she had felt herself sufficient to herself." Like in Tess of the D'Urbervilles the blame is placed on where we as modern readers feel is right: squarely on the perpetrator. The supporting characters, like Joseph Poorgrass and Liddy, are well-defined and in the case of the former, endearing in a blockheaded way.

As usual for Hardy, though, the ending is somewhat concluded, but still unsatisfactory. The middle threw me a few surprises that I didn't see coming (I was yanked out of the story when I discovered Fanny had a child [1]). 10/10

Formal review at bookish at this link.

*edited to add link.