The ?first of Thomas Hardy?s great novels, Far From the Madding Crowd
established the author as one of Britain?s foremost writers. It also introduced
readers to Wessex, an imaginary county in southwestern England that served as
the pastoral setting for many of the author?s later works. Far From the Madding
Crowd tells the story of beautiful Bathsheba Everdene, a fiercely independent
woman who inherits a farm and decides to run it herself. She rejects a marriage
proposal from Gabriel Oak, a loyal man who takes a job on her farm after losing
his own in an unfortunate accident. He is forced to watch as Bathsheba
mischievously flirts with her neighbor, Mr Boldwood, unleashing a passionate
obsession deep within the reserved man. But both suitors are soon eclipsed by
the arrival of the dashing soldier, Frank Troy, who falls in love with Bathsheba
even though he?s still smitten with another woman. His reckless presence at the
farm drives Boldwood mad with jealousy, and sets off a dramatic chain of events
that leads to both murder and marriage. A delicately woven tale of unrequited
love and regret, Far from the Madding Crowd is also an unforgettable portrait of
a rural culture that, by Hardy?s lifetime, had become threatened with extinction
at the hands of ruthless industrialization.