FAR FROM MADDING CROWD by Thomas Hardy

FAR FROM MADDING CROWD

Hardy took the title from Thomas Gray's poem Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard (1751).

Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strifeTheir sober wishes never learn'd to stray;Along the cool sequester'd vale of lifeThey kept the noiseless tenor of their way."Madding" means "frenzied" here.

Far from Madding Crowd is a novel by Thomas Hardy.  It is about love triangle between Bathsheba- a beautiful girl and Gabriel Oak, Boldwood and sergeant Troy.

In the beginning of the novel, Gabriel Oak proposes Bathsheba for marriage, but she denies because of Oak's poverty and lefts the place. After sometime Oak looses his everything, so he has to move to other place. on the way he saves a farm from fire. coincidentally it was farm of Bathsheba. so he lives there and works for Bathsheba.

At this juncture Bathsheba was in love with Boldwood. But Oak, forgets his past and works sincerely there. He was not jealous of anyone. Later on , Sergeant Troy comes in Bathsheba's life. Boldwood thought that it is because of Troy Bathsheba is away from him. so Boldwood shoots Troy and he has to go in jail. After few time Bathsheba realizes love of Oak, and he marries her.

This novel also like other novels of Hardy set in the "Wessex".  Reading book like this gives boundless aesthetic pleasure.

Hardy's Wess

Far from the Madding Crowd offers in ample measure the details of English rural life that Hardy so relished.

Weatherbury Church (Puddletown)(Wikipedia)

Hardy first employed the term "Wessex" in Far from the Madding Crowd to describe the "partly real, partly dream-country". (Wikipedia)








Work Cited:-


Wikipedia contributors. "Far from the Madding Crowd." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 30 Jan. 2016. Web. 6 Feb. 2016.