For other uses of the name, see Far from the Madding Crowd (disambiguation). Far from the Madding Crowd may refer to: Far from the Madding Crowd, an 1874 novel by Thomas Hardy Far from the Madding Crowd (1967 film), starring Julie Christie Far from the Madding Crowd (1998 film), adapted for British television Far from the Madding Crowd (album), a 2004 album by...

Far from the Madding Crowd (1874) is Thomas Hardy's fourth novel. It first appeared, anonymously, as a monthly serial in Cornhill Magazine, where it gained a wide readership; critical notices, too, were plentiful and mostly positive. Hardy revised the text extensively for the 1895 edition, and made further changes for the 1901 edition.^[1] Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Helen Allingham (née Helen Mary Elizabeth Paterson) (September 26, 1848 - September 28, 1926), was a well-known watercolour painter and illustrator of the Victorian era. ... “Thomas Hardy” redirects here. ... For other uses, see Country (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see England (disambiguation). ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... A novel (from French nouvelle Italian novella, new) is an extended, generally fictional narrative, typically in prose. ... A publisher is a person or entity which engages in the act of publishing. ... The Cornhill Magazine was a Victorian magazine and literary journal named after Cornhill a street in London. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article may require cleanup. ... “ISBN” redirects here. ... “Thomas Hardy” redirects here. ... The Cornhill Magazine was a Victorian magazine and literary journal named after Cornhill a street in London. ...

Plot summary

Gabriel Oak is an up-and-coming, eminently reliable shepherd in the prime of life at twenty-eight years of age. With the savings of a frugal life, he has leased and stocked a sheep-farm. He becomes enamoured with a newcomer six years his junior, Bathsheba Everdene, a proud and somewhat vain young beauty who arrives to live with her uncle and aunt. She comes to like him well enough, and even saves his life once, but when he makes her an unadorned, matter-of-fact offer of marriage, she cannot bring herself to assent; she values her independence too much and him too little. Gabriel's blunt protestations only serve to drive her to haughtiness. After a few months, she moves some miles away. 12th-century icon of Archangel Gabriel from Novgorod. ... Shepherd in Făgăraş Mountains, Romania. ... Bathsheba (בת שבע) is the wife of Uriah the Hittite and later of King David in the Hebrew Bible. ...

When next they meet, their circumstances have changed dramatically. An inexperienced new sheepdog drives Gabriel's herd over a cliff, ruining him. After selling off everything of value, he manages to settle all his debts, but emerges penniless. He seeks employment at a work fair in the fictional town of Casterbridge (the setting for another famous Hardy work, The Mayor of Casterbridge). When he finds none, he heads to another fair in another town, near where Bathsheba has relocated. Wikisource has original text related to this article: The Mayor of Casterbridge The Mayor of Casterbridge is a tragic novel by English author Thomas Hardy subtitled, The Life and Death of a Man of Character. It is set in the fictional town of Casterbridge (based on the town of Dorchester...

On the way, he happens upon a dangerous fire on a farm and leads the bystanders in putting it out. When the veiled owner comes to thank him, he asks if she needs a shepherd. She uncovers her face and reveals herself to be none other than Bathsheba Everdene. She had very recently inherited the considerable estate of her uncle and is now a wealthy woman. Though somewhat uncomfortable with the situation, she hires him.

Meanwhile, Bathsheba has a new admirer; the lonely and repressed farmer William Boldwood, a man of forty whose ardour Bathsheba unwittingly awakens when she sends him a valentine on which she had playfully written the words 'Marry me'. Boldwood, not realising the valentine was a jest, begins courting Bathsheba, encouraged by perceived signs of affection where none exist. When Gabriel rebukes her for her thoughtlessness, she fires him. Valentine may refer to: A card or gift given on Valentines Day // in the United States: Valentine, Nebraska Valentine Hall, dining hall at Amherst College in Australia: Valentine, New South Wales, a suburb of Lake Macquarie Valentine Island, an island off Western Australia in France Valentine, Haute-Garonne, a...

Then her sheep begin dying from bloat. She discovers to her distress that Gabriel is the only one who can cure them. Her pride delays the inevitable, but finally she is forced to beg him for help. Afterwards, she offers him back his job and their friendship is restored. Bloat, also known as torsion, gastric torsion, and gastric dilatation-volvulus (GDV) is a medical condition in which the stomach becomes overstretched by excessive gas content. ... Pride is the name of an emotion which refers to a strong sense of self-respect, a refusal to be humiliated as well as joy in the accomplishments of oneself or a person, group, nation or object that one identifies with. ... Friendship is a term used to denote co-operative and supportive behavior between two or more humans. ...

The dashing Sergeant Francis (Frank) Troy appears on the scene and wins Bathsheba's admiration by giving her a private display of his swordsmanship. Totally infatuated, she rejects Boldwood and elopes. Too late, she discovers that her new husband does not love her; his heart belongs to her former servant, Fanny Robin. Although they had a falling out, she remains his true love. Fanny is pregnant with Troy's child. Troy agrees to meet Fanny one night, but circumstances prevent his showing up. When Fanny dies from exposure after waiting for Troy all night and walking around in search of him, he grieves openly for her and his unborn child, and scorns Bathsheba. Soon afterwards, he leaves, disgusted with himself and loathing Bathsheba's company. After a long walk to the coast, he bathes in the sea to refresh himself, but a strong current carries him away.

With Troy presumed drowned, after a year, Boldwood renews his suit. Burdened with guilt over the pain she has caused him, Bathsheba reluctantly consents to marry him in seven years, long enough to have her husband declared legally dead.

Troy, however, is not dead. He returns the night Boldwood planned to announce his engagement to Bathsheba. In anguish at being cheated of love, Boldwood shoots Troy and tries unsuccessfully to kill himself. Although he is condemned to death, his friends petition the Home Secretary for mercy, citing insanity. This is granted and Boldwood's sentence is changed to "confinement At Her Majesty's Pleasure". Bathsheba, profoundly chastened by guilt and grief, buries Troy in the same grave as Fanny Robin and their child, and erects a suitable marker. The Secretary of State for the Home Department, commonly known as the Home Secretary, is the minister in charge of the United Kingdom Home Office and is responsible for internal affairs in England and Wales, and for immigration and citizenship for the whole United Kingdom (including Scotland and Northern Ireland). ... Pierre Montallier: The Works of Mercy, c. ... ‹ The template below (Expand) is being considered for deletion. ... At Her Majestys Pleasure is a British legal phrase used for being detained in prison for an indefinite length of time. ... “Guilty” redirects here. ... It has been suggested that Anticipatory Grief be merged into this article or section. ...

Throughout her tribulations, she comes to rely more and more heavily on her oldest friend, Gabriel. When he gives her notice that he is leaving her employ, she finally realises how important he has become to her well-being. One night, she goes alone to visit him in his house, to find out why he is (in her eyes) deserting her. Pressed, he reluctantly reveals that it is because of the gossip that he wants to marry her. She exclaims that it is "...too absurd - too soon - to think of, by far!" He bitterly agrees that it is absurd, but when she corrects him, saying that it is only "too soon", he is emboldened to ask once again for her hand in marriage and she accepts.

Discussion

Far from the Madding Crowd offers in ample measure the details of English rural life that Hardy so relished. The title, which is taken from Thomas Gray's poem Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard (1751), may be ironic ("madding" means "frenzied"^[2]), since the lives of Weatherbury's rural denizens are complex and passionate: Thomas Gray Thomas Gray (December 26, 1716 – July 30, 1771), was an English poet, classical scholar and professor of history at Cambridge University. ...

Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife

Their sober wishes never learn'd to stray;

Along the cool sequester'd vale of life

They kept the noiseless tenor of their way.

Hardy's growing taste for tragedy is also evident in the novel. Three of the secondary characters--Fanny Robin, Troy, and Boldwood--come to bad ends. Certain incidents, such as Fanny Robin's pregnancy with a bastard child and their pitiful death, and the quiet Boldwood's sudden lapse into murderous violence, foreshadow events in Tess of the d'Urbervilles, where (as in Jude the Obscure) the protagonist is plagued by relentless misfortunes, and dies young at the end. In Madding Crowd, however, the fates still favour the lead character, who escapes two unfortunate entanglements, survives the mistakes of her youth, and finally finds contentment. In general usage a tragedy is a play, movie or sometimes a real world event with a sad outcome. ... Tess of the dUrbervilles: A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented is a novel by Thomas Hardy, first published in 1891. ... Jude the Obscure is the last of Thomas Hardys novels, begun as a magazine serial and first published in book form in 1895. ... A protagonist is the main figure of a piece of literature or drama and has the main part or role. ...

The book might also be described as an early piece of feminist literature, since it features an independent woman with the courage to defy convention by running a farm herself. Although Bathsheba's passionate nature leads her into serious errors of judgment, Hardy endows her with sufficient resilience, intelligence, and good luck to overcome her youthful folly. Feminists redirects here. ...

Finally, in Far from the Madding Crowd Hardy explores the proper basis for a happy marriage. Bathsheba's physical attraction to the broadsword-wielding Troy leads to a disastrous marriage that might have ended in her economic ruin. A marriage to the strait-laced Boldwood, to whom she is bound only by feelings of guilt and obligation, would have meant emotional suffocation. Gabriel Oak offers her true comradeship and sound farming skills; and, although she initially spurns him, saying she doesn't love him, he turns out to be the right man to make her happy. The term broadsword is used to refer to different types of swords, across many cultures and time periods. ...

The novel and Hardy's Wessex

• Hardy first employed the term "Wessex" in Far from the Madding Crowd to describe the "partly real, partly dream-country" that unifies his novels of Southwest England. He found the word in the pages of early English history as a designation for an extinct, pre-Norman Conquest kingdom.^[3] In the first edition, the word "Wessex" is used only once, in chapter 50; Hardy extended the reference for the 1895 edition.^[4]
• The village of Puddletown, near Dorchester, is the inspiration for the novel's Weatherbury. Dorchester, in turn, inspired Hardy's Casterbridge.^[5]
• In The Mayor of Casterbridge, Hardy briefly mentions two characters from Madding Crowd– Farmer Everdene and Farmer Boldwood.

The English author Thomas Hardy set all of his major novels in the south and southwest of England. ... Bayeux Tapestry depicting events leading to the Battle of Hastings The Norman Conquest of England was the conquest of the Kingdom of England by William the Conqueror (Duke of Normandy), in 1066 at the Battle of Hastings and the subsequent Norman control of England. ... Puddletown is a village in Dorset, England, 5 miles east of Dorchester in the River Piddle valley. ... The main road through Dorchester Dorchester is a market town in south west Dorset, England, situated on the River Frome and A35 road 20 miles west of Poole and five miles north of Weymouth. ... Wikisource has original text related to this article: The Mayor of Casterbridge The Mayor of Casterbridge is a tragic novel by English author Thomas Hardy subtitled, The Life and Death of a Man of Character. It is set in the fictional town of Casterbridge (based on the town of Dorchester...

References in popular culture

• The Danish metal band Wuthering Heights released an album named after the novel.
• British musician Nick Bracegirdle, better known as Chicane also released an album named after the novel.

Promotional photograph of Wuthering Heights Wuthering Heights are a Danish heavy metal band with a somewhat eclectic musical style. ... Far From the Madding Crowd is the third full-length album by Danish band Wuthering Heights. ... Chicane is a pseudonym used by English electronic musician and record producer Nick Bracegirdle. ... Far from the Maddening Crowds is an album released by Chicane in 1997. ...

Adaptations

A number of films based on this book exist including:

• Far from the Madding Crowd (1915) at the Internet Movie Database
• Far from the Madding Crowd (1967)
• Far from the Madding Crowd (1998)

There have also been several radio plays, a musical (2000) and an opera (2006). The Internet Movie Database (IMDb) is an online database of information about movies, actors, television shows, production crew personnel, and video games. ... Far from the Madding Crowd is a 1967 feature film directed by John Schlesinger, adapted from the book of the same name by Thomas Hardy. ... Far from the Madding Crowd is a 1998 TV drama film adaptation of the Thomas Hardy novel of the same name. ...

Footnotes

1. Oxford Reader's Companion to Hardy (Norman Page, editor). Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000, pp. 130-132.
2. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition.
3. Hardy, Thomas. Far from the Madding Crowd: Preface, 1895-1902.
4. Oxford Reader's Companion to Hardy, ibid., p. 131.
5. Anonymous. Far from the Madding Crowd (caption to frontispiece). New York and London: Harper and Brothers Publications, 1912. Oxford University Press (OUP) is a highly-respected publishing house and a department of the University of Oxford in England. ...

External links

• Far from the Madding Crowd, available at Project Gutenberg.