berniE-zine Book Reviews: Far from the Madding Crowd, by Thomas Hardy

It's always good to pick up a classic every once in a while, to remind you of why some novels are considered timeless. Far from the Madding Crowd is a far cry in style from most contemporary novels that whisk you quickly from one event to another.

Set in an imaginary English village, Thomas Hardy's tale follows the life of a simple farmer, Gabriel Oak, and his devotion to a woman who repeatedly rejects him, yet can't live without him. Gabriel is willing to wait for Bathsheba, and wait he does, seeing her through two ill-suited marriages.

Bathsheba is the ultimate opposite of Gabriel. She is capricious, while he seems ploddingly methodical. She is wildly emotional and whimsical, whereas Gabriel is even-mannered and stable.

Hardy's pacing perfectly suits the temperament of Gabriel. Everything happens in its own due time and only for good reason, until a dramatic course of events finally results in the union of Gabriel and Bathsheba as equals.

Far from the Madding Crowd is a true page-turner I found hard to put down. But as someone used to the pace of contemporary fiction, it took a little while for me to re-learn how to enjoy a book that takes its time with details and character development.

If you only read one classic novel this year, make it Far from the Madding Crowd. It will inspire you to revisit other timeless stories as well.

Also by Hardy: Alicia's Diary (e-book); Barbara of the House of Grebe; Books on the Shelf; A Changed Man and Other Stories; The Collected Letters of Thomas Hardy 1902-1908; The Collected Letters of Thomas Hardy 1909-1913; The Collected Letters of Thomas Hardy 1914-1919; The Collected Letters of Thomas Hardy 1920-1925; The Collected Letters of Thomas Hardy 1926-1927; The Complete Poetical Works of Thomas Hardy: The Dynasts, Parts First & Second; Desperate Remedies; The Distracted Preacher and Other Tales; Dorsetshire Labourer; The Duke's Reappearance (e-book); The Dynasts; Enter a Dragon (e-book); Every Day is for Learning; The Famous Tragedy of the Queen of Cornwall at Tintagel in Lyonesse (play); Fellow Townsmen; The Fiddler of the Reels and Other Stories 1888-1900; The Grave by the Handpost (e-book); A Group of Noble Dames; The Hand of Ethelberta; An Imaginative Woman and Other Stories; An Indiscretion in the Life of an Heiress and Other Stories; Jude the Obscure; A Laodicean; Life's Little Ironies; Master John Horseleigh (e-book); The Mayor of Casterbridge; A Mere Interlude; Old Clock; A Pair of Blue Eyes; The Pursuit of the Well-Beloved and the Well-Beloved; The Return of the Native; The Romantic Adventures of a Milkmaid; Selected Short Stories; Tess of the D'Urbervilles; The Three Wayfarers; Trumpet Major; The Turning of the Year; Two on a Tower; Under the Greenwood Tree; The Well-Beloved; Wessex Tales; What the Shepherd Saw (e-book); The Withered Arm and Other Stories: 1887-1888; and The Woodlanders.

Poetry by Hardy: Collected Poems; The Darkling Thrush, and Other Poems; The Gates Along the Path: Poems; Hardy's Love Poems; Hardy's Selected Poems; Hardy: Poems; Late Lyrics and Earlier; Moments of Vision and Miscellaneous Verses; The New Wessex Selection of Thomas Hardy's Poetry; The Pinnacled Power; Selected Poems; Selected Poetry; and Wessex Poems and Other Verses.

Author Index / Title Index / Category Index

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