Thomas Hardy

Far From the Madding Crowd (Barnes & Noble Classics Series) (Barnes & Noble Classics)

Arianna M

3.5 stars really, but it left me too bitter for four stars.
I don't know what to say about this book. It helped me get through a time in which I didn't seem to be able to read more than two pages at once — and here I was suddenly, reading for hours and hours on end! The descriptions felt very… cinematographic. It's like Hardy has a very clear image in his head, and wants you to picture it the same way he does. You get used to it with a few chapters.
I need to mention that alongside the human characters, Nature feels as much a protagonist as they are. Hardy truly poured his love of rural life and land into this novel, and it's one of the things to recommend it.
This is truly, in my opinion, Bathsheba Everdene's novel, even though it opens with Gabriel Oak. She is the one whose fate changes the most, after all, the tragic romantic heroine at the heart of the story, though she doesn't really want to be: she'd rather be like the goddess Artemis, but unfortunately, that is not the case for her.
Gabriel Oak — the other main character, whom I didn't much like at first, but who changed throughout the novel and became a much better man — has a great quality that seems like a very low bar but is rarely met with in real life at any rate: he is unwaveringly honest. Even when it is to his complete disadvantage, he always tells Bathsheba the truth and treats her respectfully. The other men don't at all. To Troy, she is a pretty thing; to Boldwood, a prize. Neither of them seem interested in engaging with her and having a conversation with her. Oak treats her like an equal partner.
SPOILER AHEAD for the ending:
(view spoiler)[Although Bathsheba and Gabriel end up marrying, which around halfway through the book I started hoping would happen, it really doesn't feel like a triumphant ending at all. There's been too much pain, and Bathsheba has lost too much of her "wildness" for the ending to feel truly good. She and Gabriel, however, are well suited, and on equal footing, so there is that. (hide spoiler)]

Far From the Madding Crowd (Barnes & Noble Classics Series) (Barnes & Noble Classics)

Reviews