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Far from the Madding Crowd (Signet Classics)
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Manufacturer: Signet Classics
Author: Thomas Hardy, Suzanne Keen
Publisher: Signet Classics
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Our Price: $5.95
You Save: $ ( % )
Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Signet Classics
Author: Thomas Hardy, Suzanne Keen
Publisher: Signet Classics
Average Customer Rating:
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Far from the Madding Crowd (Signet Classics) Description
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.8
EAN: 9780451528568
ISBN: 0451528565
Label: Signet Classics
Manufacturer: Signet Classics
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 416
Publication Date: 2002-10-01
Publisher: Signet Classics
Studio: Signet Classics
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.8
EAN: 9780451528568
ISBN: 0451528565
Label: Signet Classics
Manufacturer: Signet Classics
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 416
Publication Date: 2002-10-01
Publisher: Signet Classics
Studio: Signet Classics
Editorial Review of Far from the Madding Crowd (Signet Classics)
A young man falls victim to his own obsession with an amorous farm girl in this classic novel of fate and unrequited love. Published anonymously and first attributed, erroneously, to George Eliot, this Signet Classic version is set from Hardy's revised final draft-the authoritative Wessex edition of 1912.
Customer Reviews of Far from the Madding Crowd (Signet Classics)
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: A Classic to be Savored
Review: 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.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: My favorite English Novelist
Review: 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.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: We Pull Our Own Strings
Review: FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD is the only novel by Thomas Hardy in which the majority of the characters do not crash into chaos and tragedy. In fact, it ends on an up note with a long anticipated marriage. This is not to say that this is a comic novel; there is no such thing for Hardy, but before his world view had totally ossified in his later books, here at least he was able to end with his major characters reaching some happy resolution.
The setting of the book is the village of Weatherbury, a place that resonated nostalgically with his readers as a recently lost pastoral Eden, where mechanization and industrialization had not yet taken sway. It is here that his characters, as always, either rise in harmony with the immemorial earth or fall in conflict with it. The novel opens with the appearance of Gabriel Oak, whose name allies him to the eternal rich soil underneath his farmer's soiled boots. He is in harmony with nature and lives by its natural laws. Enter Bathsheba Everdene, the heroine, who does not. She is proud, willful, and more than a bit of a flirt. When he proposes marriage, she rejects him. Later, she flirts outrageously with the wealthy older William Boldwood, and when he understandably responds, rejects him too. Later she meets the handsome, dashing soldier, Sergeant Troy, but decides to marry him, mostly because of his sexual appeal, which Hardly emphasizes in Troy's Freudian penchant for twirling his sword directly under her nose. Hardy injects what soon proves to be his usual tragic plot complications and lethal coincidences. Bathsheba encounters Fanny, the former lover of her husband, who has a child by him and conveniently and melodramatically dies right in front of her house. Troy dashes off for parts unknown in disgrace over the incident only to reappear a year later where he is shot to death by Boldwood, who in turn winds up as insane in a mental institution. The concluding marriage between the now widowed Bathsheba and Oak seems forced and totally unconvincing, especially since she spent the better part of the novel expatiating on their inherent incompatibilities.
In this early work, Hardy was setting in motion those forces that in future books would have a tragic hue much more somber than here. For Hardy, the essence of tragedy is the complex relationship that his characters maintain with nature. Those who call him the poet/novelist of gloom and doom are slightly off the mark here. In the actions that they take, they choose to throw pebbles into a pool that is deceptively and lethally shallow. As the pebbles land, the waves spread out and intersect with other and similar waves, causing unexpected tragic complications. Nature is that pool and the pebbles are the purposeful actions taken by those who ought to know better, but in Hardy's world, of course, they do not. His people suffer all the time, but they do so in a manner for which they must assume partial blame. The marriage of Gabriel and Bathsheba will be the last happy moment for any of Hardy's characters in all the rest of his books.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Forces of Nature
Review: 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.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Far from the Madding Crowd
Review: Thomas Hardy, born in Dorset, England in 1840, is one of the greatest writers from the United Kingdom. He wrote "Far from the Madding Crowd" when he was 34 and the book was an instant success.
The book reflects the author's affection for rural (country) people (rustic folk) at a time when the industrial revolution was in full swing. Thomas Hardy lived in London and he and his middle class town dwellers liked to escape from the madding crowd of the city to the rural fantasy land. With the hustle and bustle of living in growing towns and cities, Hardy and many in the middle class yearned for the serenity of rural life, although Hardy tended to idealise such life. However, even the rural life was changing with new railway lines cutting through the countryside.
The book is set in Weatherbury, where most people had never left the village. Hence there is continuity of rural life without much disturbance until newcomers like Troy and Bathsheba arrive.
Life in the rural areas is tough characterised by long working hours and few holidays. People hardly have the opportunity for advancement and poverty was always a threat. The poor could get refuge in the dreaded workhouse where one could get the bare minimum food and shelter and highlighted by Charles Dickens in Oliver Twist.
The main characters in the book are:
* Gabriel Oak, a young farmer who is practical and is outdoor most of the time. He is good humoured, hard working and expert in farming. He is ruined when most of his sheep die. He has to go and seek work and on his way, he fights a straw-rick fire and is hired by Bathsheba, the owner.
* Bathsheba Everdene is a beautiful but vain lady who inherits a farm in Weatherbury. She sends a valentine as a joke to Boldwood, a serious minded farmer. Boldwood falls in love with Bathsheba, after receiving her valentine, but Bathsheba rejects him and this sets in motion a series of events that ultimately leads to tragedy in the usually serene Weatherbury.
* Troy, a flirtatious visitor from the Army, with a dashing red uniform that has a powerful romantic appeal to young Bathsheba, seduces her with his charm, flattery and swordplay.
The book ends on a happy note when Gabriel and Bathsheba marry, with the approval of the rural folk.
Review Summary: A Classic to be Savored
Review: 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.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: My favorite English Novelist
Review: 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.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: We Pull Our Own Strings
Review: FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD is the only novel by Thomas Hardy in which the majority of the characters do not crash into chaos and tragedy. In fact, it ends on an up note with a long anticipated marriage. This is not to say that this is a comic novel; there is no such thing for Hardy, but before his world view had totally ossified in his later books, here at least he was able to end with his major characters reaching some happy resolution.
The setting of the book is the village of Weatherbury, a place that resonated nostalgically with his readers as a recently lost pastoral Eden, where mechanization and industrialization had not yet taken sway. It is here that his characters, as always, either rise in harmony with the immemorial earth or fall in conflict with it. The novel opens with the appearance of Gabriel Oak, whose name allies him to the eternal rich soil underneath his farmer's soiled boots. He is in harmony with nature and lives by its natural laws. Enter Bathsheba Everdene, the heroine, who does not. She is proud, willful, and more than a bit of a flirt. When he proposes marriage, she rejects him. Later, she flirts outrageously with the wealthy older William Boldwood, and when he understandably responds, rejects him too. Later she meets the handsome, dashing soldier, Sergeant Troy, but decides to marry him, mostly because of his sexual appeal, which Hardly emphasizes in Troy's Freudian penchant for twirling his sword directly under her nose. Hardy injects what soon proves to be his usual tragic plot complications and lethal coincidences. Bathsheba encounters Fanny, the former lover of her husband, who has a child by him and conveniently and melodramatically dies right in front of her house. Troy dashes off for parts unknown in disgrace over the incident only to reappear a year later where he is shot to death by Boldwood, who in turn winds up as insane in a mental institution. The concluding marriage between the now widowed Bathsheba and Oak seems forced and totally unconvincing, especially since she spent the better part of the novel expatiating on their inherent incompatibilities.
In this early work, Hardy was setting in motion those forces that in future books would have a tragic hue much more somber than here. For Hardy, the essence of tragedy is the complex relationship that his characters maintain with nature. Those who call him the poet/novelist of gloom and doom are slightly off the mark here. In the actions that they take, they choose to throw pebbles into a pool that is deceptively and lethally shallow. As the pebbles land, the waves spread out and intersect with other and similar waves, causing unexpected tragic complications. Nature is that pool and the pebbles are the purposeful actions taken by those who ought to know better, but in Hardy's world, of course, they do not. His people suffer all the time, but they do so in a manner for which they must assume partial blame. The marriage of Gabriel and Bathsheba will be the last happy moment for any of Hardy's characters in all the rest of his books.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Forces of Nature
Review: 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.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Far from the Madding Crowd
Review: Thomas Hardy, born in Dorset, England in 1840, is one of the greatest writers from the United Kingdom. He wrote "Far from the Madding Crowd" when he was 34 and the book was an instant success.
The book reflects the author's affection for rural (country) people (rustic folk) at a time when the industrial revolution was in full swing. Thomas Hardy lived in London and he and his middle class town dwellers liked to escape from the madding crowd of the city to the rural fantasy land. With the hustle and bustle of living in growing towns and cities, Hardy and many in the middle class yearned for the serenity of rural life, although Hardy tended to idealise such life. However, even the rural life was changing with new railway lines cutting through the countryside.
The book is set in Weatherbury, where most people had never left the village. Hence there is continuity of rural life without much disturbance until newcomers like Troy and Bathsheba arrive.
Life in the rural areas is tough characterised by long working hours and few holidays. People hardly have the opportunity for advancement and poverty was always a threat. The poor could get refuge in the dreaded workhouse where one could get the bare minimum food and shelter and highlighted by Charles Dickens in Oliver Twist.
The main characters in the book are:
* Gabriel Oak, a young farmer who is practical and is outdoor most of the time. He is good humoured, hard working and expert in farming. He is ruined when most of his sheep die. He has to go and seek work and on his way, he fights a straw-rick fire and is hired by Bathsheba, the owner.
* Bathsheba Everdene is a beautiful but vain lady who inherits a farm in Weatherbury. She sends a valentine as a joke to Boldwood, a serious minded farmer. Boldwood falls in love with Bathsheba, after receiving her valentine, but Bathsheba rejects him and this sets in motion a series of events that ultimately leads to tragedy in the usually serene Weatherbury.
* Troy, a flirtatious visitor from the Army, with a dashing red uniform that has a powerful romantic appeal to young Bathsheba, seduces her with his charm, flattery and swordplay.
The book ends on a happy note when Gabriel and Bathsheba marry, with the approval of the rural folk.