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    Far From the Madding Crowd
    Far From the Madding Crowd
    Far From the Madding Crowd
    Audiobook (abridged)3 hours

    Far From the Madding Crowd

    Written by Thomas Hardy

    Narrated by Neville Jason

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    In a remote corner of early Victorian England, where traditional practices remain untouched by time, Bathsheba Everdene stands out as a beacon of feminine independence and self-reliance. However, when confronted with three suitors, among them the dashing Captain Troy, she shows a reckless capriciousness which threatens the stability of the whole community. Published in 1874, and an immediate best-seller, Far From the Madding Crowd established Thomas Hardy as one of Britain’s foremost novelists.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherNaxos Audiobooks
    Release dateAug 1, 1997
    ISBN9789629545376
    Author

    Thomas Hardy

    Thomas Hardy was born in 1840 in Dorchester, Dorset. He enrolled as a student in King’s College, London, but never felt at ease there, seeing himself as socially inferior. This preoccupation with society, particularly the declining rural society, featured heavily in Hardy’s novels, with many of his stories set in the fictional county of Wessex. Since his death in 1928, Hardy has been recognised as a significant poet, influencing The Movement poets in the 1950s and 1960s.

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    Reviews for Far From the Madding Crowd

    4/5

    107 ratings92 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Far From the Maddening Crowd by Thomas HardyWhen Bathsheba Everdene, a beautiful young woman full of life inherits a farm and moves to the remote country she creates chaos in the hearts of the local men. She finds that her overseer has been stealing from the farm and fires him, determined to run the farm herself.Gabriel, a local sheep farmer who is poor but rich in integrity soon proposes marriage to her but Bathsheba refuses him. She is not in love with him though she likes him very much.Later she mischievously sends a valentine card to the wealthy farmer Boldwood. He too falls in love and becoming obsessed with her also proposes marriage. She refuses him as well for the same reason. She is not in love with him.Then a handsome and charming young scoundrel of aman, Sergeant Troy appears and Bathsheba falls madlyin love with him. They secretly wed but Bathsheba soon discovers that his one true love is one of her maids and that he is still in love with her.Bathsheba eventually learns that Sergeant Troy is an unfaithful small minded husband who can be trusted neither with her heart nor her farm. When the young maid Fanny, who loved the Sergeant is discovered dying giving birth to his stillborn child he becomes terribly and inconsolably remorseful and leaves Bathsheba.But this classic has much more to it than just the romantic interests. There is much about the farming and husbandry of those days that I found to be quite interesting. There are crops to be grown and harvested. There are also the interactions between all of the people in the novel.My least favorite character was Bathsheba herself. She was a fairly flat character and even the peasant folk seemed to have more body to them.I found this book to be lively & exciting which I know is quite the opposite of how some view Hardy's work. However I really enjoyed it and recommend it to those of you who enjoy the classics and to all Hardy lovers.
    • 5/5
      Only my second Hardy, but I think it’s safe to say I’m a fan.I loved everything about this book: the twisty story of friendship, love, and figuring life out, the character development, and especially the completely unorthodox female character that is Bathsheba Everdene. She goes from poor to rich, and from independent and brazen to lovesick and sad and then back again. So very good!
    • 5/5
      The main character of this 19th century British classic is Bathsheba Everdene, an independent woman who through an inheritance gains ownership of a farm. Bathsheba is feisty, smart and both willing and able to succeed in a man's world. That is until she falls in love with Sargeant Troy, a womanizer and overall scoundrel. This book could be a 19th century version of 'Why Women Choose the Wrong Men'. Although the language and the setting make this a classic, the personalities and the motivations were very much relevant to today's times.

      I both listened and read this book - great narration by Nathaniel Parker (the Artemis Fowl narrator) who gives a stellar performance of the quirky rural characters in this book. This is only the 2nd Thomas Hardy that I've read, but I've enjoyed them both. Great author.
    • 5/5
      I loved this book and am amazed that I hadn't read it before now. It is charming, delightful and poignant all at the same time!Gabriel loves Bathsheba, pure and simple and when she turns him down he accepts it, but carries on looking out for her.She doesn't know what she wants and gets herself into a right pickle by doing the wrong thing, but Gabriel is there! She nearly loses all but Gabriel is there.Things take a dreadful turn and I won't give away any more of the story! Except to say it is well worth the read, even trying to understand the local dialect of the characters.
    • 4/5
      A surprisingly modern tale.
    • 2/5
      Nothing special.
    • 5/5
      Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy1874 WessexI had seen this movie in the late 60's with my grandparents. Had no idea what it was about but it's a classic. I also ordered the paperback a few months ago and haven't gtten to it. But now I have it on audio so I hope I enjoy it.Quite a different type of book subject from what I'm used to reading. Love all the descriptive details, makes me feel as if I am there.Sexual scenes. Basheba Everdeen entices 3 men in her village. A farmer Gabriel Oak falls in love with her but she is not in love with him. Liked hearing of the sheep and their routines and when Gabriel realizes something is amiss. Love hearing of the bartering to get a shepherd's hook. He finds her in a nearby town where she's become a farm owner via her uncle. She's so head strong.Soldier Frank Troy needs to have the marriage bands announced....Landowner William Baldwill-it's rumored he was jilted at the alter and that's effected him in later years...Baldwill wants to marry her but again she's not in love with him. Love the chat about molting and shearing of the wool from the sheep.Like legacy of pocket watch! I received this book from National Library Service for my BARD (Braille Audio Reading Device).
    • 4/5
      I have no idea why this book did not impress me quite as much as Hardy's "Tess of the d'Urbervilles" or "Mayor of Casterbridge". After all, all the elements of a solid drama were there: a vulnerability of a beautiful woman precariously balanced against her stoicism, the unrequited love, sudden passion sprung as a result of a silly whim, tragic denouement for some and happy ending for others, intriguing insights into the human nature by the author... Bathsheba Everdeen and Gabriel Oak are the two co-protagonists, while Boldwood and Troy seem to be secondary characters that, to me, appear on the scene only to offset Bathsheba's weaknesses. Though Bathsheba is at the center of it all and, for a woman of that era, is certainly a redoubtable personality, Gabriel Oak seems to be the most positive and appealing character out of the four. Hardy dwells on the village life of the area, going into detailed description of nature and the colorful local characters - whose life, though "far from the madding crowd", gets suddenly disrupted by the unpredictable and volatile events. And yet, somehow, for me, neither the plot nor the deliverance of the narrative were at the level of Hardy's two aforementioned novels.
    • 5/5
      Mr Taylor's AP English class, 1981. Suburban northern Virginia. Alan Bates, Julie Christie in the movie. Sigh.
    • 2/5
      One of the things to put me off classical literature - much as I love it really - is that so much seems contrived. A character disappears, is forgotten about, and returns at a critical juncture, changing the course of the story. Two characters, who seem to have nothing in common, actually do, and then it's something really strange and unlikely that unites them. Basically, it's like "Lost" writ large.Hardy, one of the Romantics, was guilty of many of the crimes I list above, though he cannot be blamed for what was taken so seriously for so long. "Far From the Madding Crowd" is spoilt by these contrivances; it is still worth reading as an early feminist novel (though written by a man it concerns the life and loves of one woman), and if you are interested in the English countryside you'll find this fascinating.
    • 5/5
      The love story of Bathsheba and Gabriel Oak the shepherd takes a long time to come to a happy conclusion. There are class prejudices and pride in the way of their happiness and Bathsheba will learn to overcome her moral issues through a series of unhappy events.The chapters are divided in twelve (as the original publication was published in twelve, monthly, episodes), following the course of a year and following seasonal changes too. This lends a more realist touch to a tale that could just be very fictional (Wessex county is imaginary).In any case, the language is simple, easy to understand and the chapters are rather short. I just wish the OUP editors would include the original Allingham pictures with the text, as they lend a more dramatic illustration to key events.
    • 5/5
      I have long admired Hardy's poems. So much that as a teenager I even committed one to memory. This year I began to read Hardy's novels for the first time. The 1968 film version of "Far from the Madding Crowd" made it quickly to my top ten favorite movies of all time after I saw it on DVD. I was excited to relive the story of Bathsheba Everdene and her suitors by reading the novel. Well, there are often good reasons books are considered classics. Psychological types easily recognized today perform in a vivid setting saturated with nostalgia for a pre-industrial pastoral world. The strings of a florid Victorian pianoforte style are plucked from inside the instrument with an originality, congruency and wit that delighted me when I read his poetry. I've read that Thomas Hardy is considered somber, but his karmic sense of justice corresponds to my own. He admires and rewards mature virtues, persistence, patience self-control, practicality, modesty and, oh yeah, mature love and he does that in a way that makes virtue romantic. The sensual earthy texture of the movie is true to the novel.
    • 5/5
      Bought 1980s, read for the Hardy Reading ProjectA truly amazing book: rich, beautiful writing and a page turner. A big step forward in his writing, I felt. Proud Bathsheba thinks she can outwit love but is floored bu it; her suitors have very different fates from one another and the landscape, the stars and the animals provide a wonderful backdrop. The local farmhands are done with a lighter touch; still comical but not so laboured, somehow, and there are some beautiful scenes, for example Gabriel's observation of the movement of the stars. My favourite quotation was another bird-related one: "No Christmas robin detained by a window-pane ever pulsed as did Bathsheba now" (p. 247).I studied this for O level but had forgotten the story, although certain rather random scenes and descriptions, such as Gabriel's face and the round hill he stands upon, were very familiar. Truly a privilege and a joy to re-read this book.
    • 2/5
      This was really not my cup of tea. I would likely have put it down early on, were it not for my drive to complete books (fostered in no small part by Goodreads). My main observation about it is that the most exciting scenes tended to be about sheep.

      To be fair, Hardy has a certain stylistic audacity. But while his frequent digressions sometimes hit on a particularly beautiful or funny sentence, they usually come across as self-conscious and ineffective displays of literary wit. The ending of the book did charm me, despite all of my accumulated boredom and annoyance. On the whole, the story seems strong enough to carry a film adapation; I won't, however, be recommending the book to anyone I know.
    • 3/5
      All the story describe a shepherd. Gabriel Oak,whose love for Bathsheba is quiet and steady .He still loves Bathsheba from begin to the end .Before they didi not get together ,but at the end they get married .So what event makes them get married at last is the most important event .Oka loves Bathsheba ,but she did not love him before ,and she gets married with a handsome young soldier Troy.Before Troy met Bathsheba,he had a fiancee,who is Troy’s most love person .But when they have a wedding , the bride was late ,so Troy canceled their wedding After Troy and Bath sheba get married .Troy see that girl again ,but that girl died at the second day ,so Troy very sad ,and fall into river .Every body think he is died .So Bathsheba get married with a middle-aged man Boldwood ,who has never been in love before . .On their wedding ,Troy appears.So Bathsheba does not want get married with Boldwood .It makes Boldwood very angry , and he kills Troy. The result is Troy died and Blodwood go to prison. At the end,Bathsheba’s love is Dak , only he accompany with she .So they get married
    • 4/5
      I love Thomas Hardy's writing, as long as I continually remind myself to remain in the period. Bathsheba, the "heroine", as the author refers to her, is not exactly a role model for women of any period in my opinion. Of course, the men are driven mad, literally, by her spirit and beauty, and she remains insensitive, flighty, and totally impulse driven until the climax when she miraculously sees the error of her ways. I really like Gabriel Oak, my hero.
    • 5/5
      After reading many contemporary novels, Clock Dance the most recent,it is so good to be in the hands of a master again!Everything - plot, character, moods, tone, point of view, and so gloriously, the settings - is finely tuned and precisely and beautifully delivered.The only development that, to me, never got fully resolved was Boldwood (now, there's a name to live up to!) capitulating so quickly to Falling In Love.It would have seemed more in tune with his character to stay distant for a little longer until he could comprehend the nature of both his ownfeelings and Bathsheba's responses. Far From The Madding Crowd certainly stands as a testimonial for caution equally to lovers of both sex when Falling In Love!
    • 5/5
      one of my fav reads full of hardy's symbolism a story of a changing time
    • 5/5
      Which would you rather have? Burning passion or constant loyalty?
    • 4/5
      I've only read three of his books now, but I kind of love Thomas Hardy. Because he gets it. He gets how shitty social and moral conventions are to women. Does Hardy have an avid following like Austen or Dickens? Because he totally should! I demand more Hardy adaptations!

      Bathsheba Everdene - what an awesome name - is a beautiful, intelligent, confident, and fiercely independent young woman. Upon inheriting her uncle's farm, she moves to Weatherbury, where she attracts the attention of three very different men: loyal shepherd Gabriel Oak, reserved farmer William Boldwood, and dashing soldier Francis Troy.

      There are so many vividly drawn scenes - for instance, Bathsheba falls for Troy after he gives her a display of his swordsmanship. (How perfectly Freudian!) And Bathsheba is just such a wonderful character, female or otherwise. She makes her own decisions, some of which are mistakes, but she is strong enough to own to those mistakes and grow from them.

      Hardy is truly one of the masters of his craft. Despite his books' gloomy reputations, he has a sense of humor that shines through. And I'm not a fan of descriptive prose, but his is gorgeous without being self-indulgent. I also learned more than I ever wanted to know about raising sheep and what can go wrong. (I admittedly did tune out whenever architecture or farming practices came up, but those passages don't last long.) I highly recommend this book if you're a fan of the marriage plot and/or soapy Masterpiece Theater productions.
    • 1/5
      I was bored to tears. I went through the first five chapters and found nothing remotely interesting. I've seen previews of the movie adaption and was curious enough to read the book first. Now I'm not sure I'll even bother to rent the movie.

      Moving on!
    • 3/5
      Brilliant prose, pointed insights. Turgid and overlong narrative.
    • 2/5
      This book really didn?t do much for me. I adored the lovely, flowing style of writing Hardy had, the writing it self was almost poetic as the told his story, but the story it self just fell short for me. I didn?t care much for any of the characters, they bored me and I wasn?t ever interested in them at all. Most didn?t have anything catching or striking about them, just a group of people, going on with there day to day lives. The story is about the men who fall in love with a farmer woman, but even the love story it self wasn?t as I thought; it almost lacked emotion and feelings you?d expect. I also found a lot of the story to be predictable and redundant. There are only so many times you can see the same guy beg for a woman?s love and for her to turn him down. It gets boring very quickly, and you want the story to move on and progress faster than it did. Although I guess the slowness of the story can reflect the slowness of the time period, life on the farm and the close-nit community people of the time lived in. And Hardy does an excellent job at that, he is able to portray that, it just had a week cast of characters, that didn?t do much for the story, and in fact probably hindered it.There isn?t much else I can say, I?m not turned of Hardy yet, I?m going to try and read some of his other work, because his writing style is just beautiful, but this story just wasn?t me.
    • 5/5
      Hardy's mastery of the English language is what made this book truly worthwhile. Thoroughly enjoyable, and I found it very touching in places. I think this will go on my favorites list.
    • 1/5
      Quite frankly, there are better things to do (and read) with my time. I found this slow and tedious and odious and it has unfortunately put me off reading any of Hardy's works.
    • 5/5
      A story of independent Bathsheba and the three very different men who loved her set in Thomas Hardy's Wessex. Tragic and passionate.
    • 5/5
      When my husband show me with the dictionary in one hand and the book in the other, asked me why I was bothering myself with that book, if it was so difficult to read. "Because, it's so good, it's worth it!" was my answer.I read it decades ago and I admit I didn't like it; I found it gloomy and depressing. But this time, I thoroughly enjoyed it: I loved Hardy's subtle humor and oh, so accute observations on human nature, the landscape descriptions, the twists of the tale and of course Gabriel Oak.The scene where Oak asks for employment from the woman that he had asked to marry not a few weeks ago, when they were equals, was heartbreaking. So few words, no more than 4 or five lines stripped of sentimental frillies, but you can feel Oak's feelings, loss of pride and despair as if you were him.But there were so many great scenes: Troy planting flowers in Fanny's grave at night, Boldwood's proof of obsession with Bathsheba coming to light, Gabriel and Bathsheba working together in the granary to save the corn from the rain while angry flashes rake the sky and many more. Through detailed descriptions of rural life in England during the late 1800s, the plot never loses its pace and there are enough twists and turns to keep the reader engrossed. The piquant remarks on human nature from Hardy, spice up the story and offer a touch of humor that saves it from being downright gloomy. Even when the greatest catastrophe occurs, Hardy's commendation on it, will usually have you ending the chapter with a slight smile on your face. I'm glad I gave this book another chance. Thanks BJ Rose for reminding me of it:)
    • 3/5
      Although written in 1874 this is a very modern novel as a strong women runs a farm and her life surrounded by suitors.
    • 4/5
      This is the story of farmer Bathsheba Everdene and the three men who love her. There were lots of things I liked about the book: the good humour of the conversations between the farm labourers, the character of Gabriel Oak and the strong sense of seasons/harvest/reliance on the weather.On the other hand, there was (and I think I always feel this with Thomas Hardy) a pervading sense of doom and gloom. Hardy has a very masculine narrative voice and often comments on things Bathsheba does as being typical for a woman (or not). Certain touches were excellent; the discovery of all the jewellery and clothes Boldwood had bought for Bathsheba, the fact that Boldwood's failure to secure his harvest from the rain is the surest evidence of his mental deterioration and the shocking revelation by Bathsheba that she married Troy because he told her he had seen a more beautiful woman than her and could not promise to be true.But... I struggled a bit with Troy's supposed irresistibility (although the description of their not terribly happy subsequent married life was well done). I did not understand why Fanny failed to meet with Troy when she followed him to his barracks. In looking back, Troy makes it clear that she stood him up - why? [I have since discovered the chapter which explains this as an appendix to my version - very annoying as it helps the story make sense and casts light on Troy's character]. I could have done without all the references to Greek mythology and the obsession with the stars in the (rather slow) opening chapters. The romance at the end felt very natural and provided a satisfactory conclusion.
    • 3/5
      Bathsheba Everdene is beautiful and willful and when she inherits her uncle's farm in Westbury she makes the controversial decision to run it herself without the aid of a bailiff. In the midst of her independence, however, Bathsheba finds herself the object of desire of three very different men. As Bathsheba contemplates the concept of marriage, the power of her attractions will alter the lives of each of the men as well as her own, in ways no one could predict.I enjoyed the majority of this classic novel with its largely quiet and pastoral feel and it's sudden dramatic turn in the latter half of the book. The language is beautiful and each of the characters are drawn wonderfully and distinctly. My only gripe is a relic of the period in which the novel was written, as Hardy frequently includes sentences about the common weakness of women in general that left me rolling my eyes. I found it particularly irritating as the main character of his novel is such a strong and independent woman. That being said, it was a solid read that I don't regret.