‘Far from the Madding Crowd’ is the fourth book written by renowned British author Thomas Hardy and was his first big literary success. In 2007, the book was ranked 10th on the Guardian’s list of greatest love stories of all time. It is also the first of Hardy’s novels to be set in Wessex, Hardy’s fictional English county.
The plot centers on what is essentially a love quadrangle between the bewitching Bathsheba Everdene, the earnest and loyal shepherd Gabriel Oak, a reckless and wild soldier Sergeant Troy as well as the elusive and reclusive William Boldwood. As their lives become increasingly entangled, themes of love, honor and dependence become central to the story and the lives and livelihoods of the various characters are increasingly imperiled.
A sensation when it was first published, ‘Far from the Madding Crowd’ has gone on to become one of the most beloved and celebrated novels in English literature and it has been adapted several times for the stage and screen. It is presented here in its original and unabridged format.
A propos de l’auteur
Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) was an English novelist and poet best known for his dramatic novels set in the west of England in a fictionalized area known as Wessex. Hardy came from humble origins (his father was a stonemason) but he received encouragement in his education from his mother and attended school in Dorchester until he began an apprenticeship at 16, studying to become an architect. Eventually, he would move to London and continue his education at King’s College London and worked on various architectural projects through the 1860’s. But young Hardy had a love of literature and attempted to get an early novel published in as early as 1867. He could not find a publisher and abandoned the book, finally publishing his first two novels anonymously in the early 1870’s. His publications of Far from the Madding Crowd in 1874 finally brought Hardy the success and literary renown he craved and his subsequent books, The Return of the Native (1878), The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886) and especially Tess of the d’Urbevilles (1891) proved to be enormously successful, if controversial because of their themes of class division, sex, religion and marriage. This would come to a head with his publication of Jude the Obscure in 1895, which brought strong condemnation from the conservative Victorian public as well as church officials. The notoriety and negative press surrounding the publication naturally only caused the book to become even more popular. By the 1900’s, Hardy’s financial and literary legacy was secure and he spent the rest of his life devoted almost entirely to writing poetry, including a number of significant war poems inspired by the Boer Wars and World War I. In December of 1927, he became ill with pleurisy and died on January 11, 1928 at his home in Dorchester at the age of 87.
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