Thomas Hardy's Far From the Madding Crowd

Although it's safe to say he had as many critics as admirers, Thomas Hardy barely seemed to notice. Unlike Dickens who embraced his many fans with welcomed arms, even seeming to thrive under public scrutiny, Hardy's relationship with his readers can only be described as one of careless indifference bordering on contempt. When his 1895 novel Jude the Obscure, though received moderately well by critics, threw his reading public into a a fit of outrage over the book's morbid content and perceived immorality, Hardy quit fiction altogether, focusing instead on poetry and short form prose until his death in 1928. Far From the Madding Crowd is one of his earliest and best-loved novels, confronting head-on the themes of country manners, feminine virtue, male obsession and unrequited love.

"The only superiority in women that is tolerable to the rival sex is, as a rule, that of the unconscious kind; but a superiority which recognizes itself may sometimes please by suggesting possibilities of capture to the subordinated man." p. 37

In the secluded, pastoral English county of Wessex, Gabriel Oak is a young, hard working farmer whose life becomes indelibly altered when he meets the spry, comely Bathsheba Everdene, a milkmaid from a neighboring farm. Though Gabriel's pursuits and courtship are not unencouraged, his honest proposal of marriage is turned down by the girl who soon relocates to another part of the county. When they next meet some months later, things have changed considerably. A terrible accident has killed off Gabriel's entire flock, forced the sale of his farm and thrust him into a life as hired hand while Bathsheba is now a moderately wealthy landowner, inheriting an estate and a considerable plot of land upon her uncle's death. By chance, when Gabriel happens upon a fire at Bathsheba's farm and spearheads the effort to extinguish it, his efforts are applauded by the locals and he is made the bailiff and estate manager under the Bathsheba's supervision.

Bathsheba's rather unconventional situation--young, single beautiful woman acting as sole proprietor to a large country estate--has caught the ear and eye of more than a few people in neighboring villages and surrounding countryside, most notably the wealthy, distinguished William Boldwood and the dashing Sergeant Francis Troy. Both men's courtship and subsequent entanglement with the immature, capricous Bathsheba are met with staggeringly ill consequences as the young woman's pride and stubborn wilfulness, Boldwood's covetous obsession, Troy's bigamy and hidden secrets culminate in each's bitter self-knowledge, agony and disgrace. It is only Gabriel's solemn, dutiful prudence and discretion which prevents Bathsheba herself from total ruin.

Written in 1874, Far from the Madding Crowd was Hardy's 1st Wessex novel and offers, in ample measure, the details of English country life the author so cherished. Chiefly featured, however, is Hardy's strict devotion to the tenets of realism, his portrayal of man's bitterly brutal lot echoing his deepest convictions as fallible human nature and moral ineptitude form the book's central themes. The price of vanity, unforeseen consequences and a taste for the tragic are on full display: all four or five principle characters endure harsh circumstances--not always unjustifiably--and are invariably certain to suffer from their actions. Incidents such as the young Fanny Robin's pregnancy with Troy's bastard child (and death as a result of), Boldwood's murderous rampage, Bathsheba's humiliating abasement, and Gabriel's quiet longing foreshadow events in Hardy's later novels in which protagonists like Tess d'Urbeville and Jude Fawley are mercilessly plagued by relentless misfortune. In 'Madding Crowd' the fates still favour some semblance of grace and mercy though as the two primary lead characters, Gabriel and Bathsheba, are able to escape affliction, learn from their mistakes, and ultimately find love with each other. But as with all of Hardy's Victorian novels the real draw is the author's master hand at eliciting mood, setting and characterization, his skill, intuition and metaphorical dexterity a wonder to behold. (FIC HARDY)