Far from the Madding Crowd

Summary

Gabriel Oak, a young shepherd farming his own small flock on Norcombe Hill, falls in love with Bathsheba Everdene, a proud, lively girl staying with her aunt nearby. She saves his life when he nearly suffocates in his smoky hut, but refuses his plain proposal, saying she wants somebody to tame her. Soon afterwards Gabriel's inexperienced young dog drives his whole flock over the edge of a chalk-pit, and he is ruined. Looking for work as a bailiff, he arrives at Weatherbury in time to save a burning rick-yard and finds that its owner is Bathsheba, who has inherited her uncle's farm. She hires him as shepherd. Determined to manage the farm herself, she dismisses her thieving bailiff and goes to Casterbridge market among the men. On a whim she sends a valentine sealed 'Marry me' to her neighbour, the reserved gentleman-farmer William Boldwood, who has never noticed her, and awakens in him an intense, consuming passion. Meanwhile Fanny Robin, a servant who had left the farm, waits at the wrong church on her wedding day, and Sergeant Frank Troy, the man she was to marry, will not try again. Troy, handsome and clever, meets Bathsheba in a dark fir plantation when his spur catches her skirt, dazzles her with a display of swordsmanship in a hollow among the ferns, and marries her secretly in Bath, to Boldwood's anguish. At the harvest supper Troy makes the farm-hands drunk while a storm threatens the uncovered ricks; Gabriel and Bathsheba save the harvest together through the night. Troy's debts and gambling grow. Fanny, destitute and pregnant, struggles along the Casterbridge highway to the Union workhouse, and dies there with her baby. Bathsheba opens the coffin brought to her house, and Troy, coming in, kisses the dead girl and tells his wife that Fanny is more to him than she ever was. He leaves, is swept out to sea while bathing and is believed drowned, but has been picked up by a boat. Boldwood presses Bathsheba for a promise to marry him after seven years. At Boldwood's Christmas Eve party Troy returns to claim his wife, and Boldwood shoots him dead. Boldwood is sentenced to death, but evidence of his disordered mind, including a closet of dresses and jewellery labelled 'Bathsheba Boldwood', leads to a reprieve and confinement during Her Majesty's pleasure. When Gabriel plans to leave for California, Bathsheba realises how much she depends on him; they marry quietly, and the farm-workers serenade them. The novel appeared anonymously in the Cornhill Magazine through 1874 and was published by Smith, Elder in two volumes in November 1874. The library text is that first edition, with the two volumes' chapters numbered separately.

Plot or Argument

• Norcombe (Vol. I, Chs. I–VI)

  Gabriel Oak admires Bathsheba on a wagon, is rescued by her from his smoke-filled hut, and proposes; she declines. His flock is lost over the chalk-pit, and he sets out as a labourer, saving a burning rick at Weatherbury and meeting the frightened Fanny Robin on the road.

• Mistress and men (Vol. I, Chs. VII–XII)

  Bathsheba, now mistress of her uncle's farm, takes on Gabriel as shepherd, dismisses the bailiff Pennyways, and tells her workers she means to astonish them. At Warren's malthouse the rustic chorus talks; Fanny's lover is found to be a soldier, and she seeks him at Melchester in the snow.

• The valentine and Boldwood (Vol. I, Chs. XIII–XXI)

  Bathsheba's careless valentine overturns Boldwood's calm. Fanny's wedding fails at All Saints'. Boldwood proposes during the sheep-washing; Gabriel rebukes Bathsheba for trifling with him and is dismissed, then recalled to save her flock, which has broken into young clover.

• Troy (Vol. I, Ch. XXII – Vol. II, Ch. IV)

  After the great barn's shearing supper, Bathsheba meets Sergeant Troy in the fir plantation; he helps hive her bees and performs the sword exercise in the hollow among the ferns. Boldwood's fury and Gabriel's warnings fail; she goes to Bath and returns married.

• The storm (Vol. II, Chs. V–VIII)

  Troy turns the harvest supper into a drinking bout; Gabriel, with Bathsheba's help, thatches the ricks through lightning and rain. Boldwood's unprotected ricks are ruined, his neglect a sign of his decline.

• Fanny's end (Vol. II, Chs. IX–XVI)

  Fanny crawls to the Casterbridge Union, helped at last by a stray dog, and dies. Joseph Poorgrass, bringing her coffin, lingers at the Buck's Head; Bathsheba opens it and finds the mother and child. Troy grieves, plants flowers on the grave, and leaves when the church gargoyle washes them away.

• Absence and return (Vol. II, Chs. XVII–XXIV)

  Troy, swept out at Carrow Cove, is rescued and drifts as a performer, playing Dick Turpin at Greenhill Fair. Gabriel becomes bailiff of both farms. Boldwood extracts Bathsheba's half-promise; at his Christmas party Troy appears and Boldwood shoots him, then gives himself up.

• Conclusion (Vol. II, Chs. XXV–XXVII)

  Boldwood is reprieved on grounds of insanity. Gabriel's plan to emigrate brings Bathsheba to his cottage, where they come to an understanding; they marry on a foggy morning, and Joseph Poorgrass declares that it might have been worse.

Characters

• Gabriel Oak, protagonist

  Steady, skilled shepherd who loses his farm, serves Bathsheba faithfully, and finally marries her.

• Bathsheba Everdene, heroine

  Spirited, vain and independent young woman who inherits a farm and runs it herself.

• William Boldwood, neighbouring farmer

  Grave, solitary gentleman-farmer whose passion for Bathsheba becomes obsession.

• Sergeant Francis Troy, soldier and husband

  Charming, reckless dragoon who marries Bathsheba after abandoning Fanny.

• Fanny Robin, servant

  Poor, trusting girl betrayed by Troy, who dies in the workhouse with her child.

• Liddy Smallbury, maid and companion

  Bathsheba's chatty young confidante.

• Joseph Poorgrass, farm-hand

  Bashful, scripture-quoting labourer of the rustic chorus, prone to blushing and drink.

• Jan Coggan, farm-hand

  Good-humoured labourer and Gabriel's friend at Warren's malthouse.

Lessons

• Steadfast love

  Gabriel's love outlasts refusal, ruin and years of service without reward. Hardy contrasts his patient affection with Boldwood's consuming passion and Troy's quick charm, and the closing chapter praises a love grown from knowing each other's rough sides.

  • How does Gabriel respond when Bathsheba first refuses him, and again when she marries Troy?
  • Why does the narrator call the final love between Gabriel and Bathsheba 'substantial'?
  • Which of the three suitors truly knows Bathsheba?

• Skill and stewardship

  Gabriel saves the ricks from fire and storm and the sheep from bloat by knowledge and hard work. Hardy honours the craft of farm life and shows that faithfulness in small duties can save a whole household.

  • What skills does Gabriel show in the fire, the sheep-blasting and the storm?
  • Why does Bathsheba need Gabriel even when she is angry with him?
  • What does Troy's behaviour at the harvest supper reveal about his idea of responsibility?

• Vanity and its consequences

  Bathsheba admires herself in a mirror on the first page and sends a valentine as a joke. Her small vanities set off great consequences for Boldwood, and she grows through suffering into humility and honesty.

  • Why does Bathsheba send the valentine, and what does it do to Boldwood?
  • How has Bathsheba changed by the final chapters?

• Passion and the disordered mind

  Boldwood's love turns from devotion to fixation, shown in his neglected ricks and his hidden store of gifts. The reprieve raises the question of responsibility when passion overthrows judgment.

  • What signs of Boldwood's decline appear before the Christmas party?
  • Does Gabriel believe Boldwood was out of his mind, and what do you think?
  • What warning does Boldwood's story give about letting one desire rule a life?

Context

The novel is set in rural Dorset of the mid-nineteenth century, which Hardy here first called Wessex. Agriculture was still worked largely by hand and horse, with hiring fairs, sheep-washing, shearing feasts and harvest suppers; the New Poor Law's Union workhouses received the destitute. A woman farming in her own right, as Bathsheba does, was unusual but not unknown.

Composition

Leslie Stephen, editor of the Cornhill Magazine, invited Hardy to write a serial after reading Under the Greenwood Tree. Far from the Madding Crowd ran anonymously in the Cornhill from January to December 1874 with illustrations by Helen Paterson, and Smith, Elder published it in two volumes in November 1874. Hardy revised it later, notably for the 1895 collected edition, and in later texts Carrow Cove became Lulwind Cove. The title comes from Thomas Gray's Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard.

Reception

Some early readers guessed the anonymous serial was by George Eliot. Its success let Hardy give up architecture and marry Emma Gifford in 1874. It has remained one of his most popular novels and has been filmed several times.

Comparisons

• elegy-written-in-a-country-churchyard

  Hardy's title quotes Gray's line about the 'madding crowd's ignoble strife', though his rural world proves anything but quiet.

• jude-the-obscure

  Hardy's last novel turns the same Wessex into a place where every marriage fails; the early pastoral ends in a patient marriage of shared work.

• silas-marner

  Eliot's Raveloe and Hardy's Weatherbury both have a chorus of villagers whose talk comments on the main action.

• pride-and-prejudice

  Both heroines refuse a first proposal and later accept the man they misjudged, though Bathsheba's road passes through tragedy.

• as-you-like-it

  Shakespeare's pastoral of shepherds and lovers lies behind Hardy's choice of a shepherd hero wooing a proud woman.

Quotes

For Students

A reading companion for classical Christian high school students. See the student guide.

Reading Guide

Watch for

• Bathsheba smiling at herself in a mirror on the wagon in the first chapter.
• The valentine and the seal reading 'Marry me'.
• Troy's red coat and flashing sword set against Gabriel's smock and crook.
• The rustic chorus at Warren's malthouse and how its talk comments on the main story.
• Weather and seasons at each turn of the plot, especially the storm over the ricks.

Key terms and names

Wessex

Hardy's name, taken from the old Anglo-Saxon kingdom, for the south-western counties where his novels are set.

Weatherbury

The village where Bathsheba's farm lies, based on Puddletown in Dorset.

Casterbridge

The county town, based on Dorchester, with its market, gaol and Union workhouse.

Bailiff

The manager of a farm on behalf of its owner, the post Gabriel first seeks and later holds.

Rick

A stack of hay or corn built in the open, which must be thatched against rain.

Union

The workhouse shared by a group of parishes under the Poor Law, where Fanny dies.

Seminar Questions

1. Comprehension How does Gabriel lose his farm, and how does he come to Weatherbury?
2. Comprehension Why does Fanny Robin's wedding to Troy fail to take place?
3. Comprehension What happens at Boldwood's Christmas Eve party?
4. Interpretation What does the swordplay in the hollow among the ferns reveal about Troy's hold over Bathsheba?
5. Interpretation Why does Hardy give so much space to the farm-workers' conversations?
6. Interpretation How does the title, taken from Gray's Elegy, fit or not fit the story?
7. Big Question What is the difference between a love founded on passion and a love founded on knowledge of each other?
8. Big Question Is faithfulness in ordinary work a kind of heroism?

Faith Connections

• 1 Corinthians 13:4–7 (Scripture)

  Gabriel's love bears all things and endures all things, waiting without envy or self-seeking for years.

• John 10:11–14 (Scripture)

  Gabriel the shepherd risks himself for the flock through fire, sickness and storm, recalling the Good Shepherd who knows his sheep.

• Proverbs 31:10–31 (Scripture)

  Bathsheba's management of her farm and household can be set beside the capable woman of Proverbs, who works with her hands and fears the Lord.

• Hosea 4:17 (Scripture)

  Joseph Poorgrass quotes 'Ephraim is joined to idols: let him alone' in the last lines, a comic touch of the villagers' Bible-soaked speech.

Logic and Rhetoric

Central argument: Hardy argues through three suitors that lasting love rests on shared labour and honest knowledge of character, not on admiration, gratitude or passion alone.

Rhetorical device: pathetic fallacy. In Vol. II, Ch. VII, the lightning storm over the uncovered ricks mirrors the danger in Bathsheba's marriage, and Gabriel's work against it becomes a sign of his faithfulness.

Debate: Resolved: that Boldwood should be held fully responsible for the death of Troy.

Memory Work

And at home by the fire, whenever you look up, there I shall be—and whenever I look up, there will be you.

Theirs was that substantial affection which arises (if any arises at all) when the two who are thrown together begin first by knowing the rougher sides of each other’s character, and not the best till further on, the romance growing up in the interstices of a mass of hard prosaic reality.

Writing Prompts

Essay: Argue which of Bathsheba's three suitors best deserves her, using their proposals, their conduct during the storm, and the ending.

Comparison with Jude the Obscure: Compare the ending of Far from the Madding Crowd with the ending of Jude the Obscure: how did Hardy's picture of marriage in Wessex change over twenty years?

Medical Lens

Boldwood is a careful study of a reserved man whose passion becomes a fixed idea: he neglects his ricks, makes Bathsheba promise to marry him after seven years, buys and labels gifts for a wife he does not have, and finally kills Troy. After the trial a petition to the Home Secretary argues that he was not morally responsible, and his sentence is commuted to confinement during Her Majesty's pleasure, the usual phrase for a criminal judged insane; Gabriel himself doubts he was out of his mind, and the novel leaves the question open. Fanny Robin's death in the Casterbridge Union after childbirth, with her infant, shows the workhouse as the last refuge of the poor. Gabriel's use of a trocar to relieve sheep 'blasted' with clover is a precise piece of veterinary practice. Bathsheba's collapse after the shooting, and drink at the harvest supper and the Buck's Head, add further material. Any modern diagnosis of Boldwood is interpretive.

• Vol. I, Ch. XXI

  Gabriel relieves the bloated sheep by puncturing their rumen with a trocar, saving most of Bathsheba's flock.

  Medical Ethics
• Vol. II, Chs. IX–XI

  Fanny's struggle along the Casterbridge highway to the Union-house, and the report of her death there.

  Childbirth Maternal Asylum Institution Death Dying
• Vol. II, Ch. XIII

  Bathsheba opens the coffin and finds Fanny with her dead child beside her.

  Childbirth Maternal Death Dying
• Vol. II, Ch. XXV

  Discovery of Boldwood's locked closet of gifts, the petition on his mental state, and the reprieve to confinement during Her Majesty's pleasure.

  Obsession Monomania Madness Psychosis Asylum Institution
• Vol. II, Ch. VI

  Troy plies the workers with brandy and water at the harvest supper while the storm gathers.

  Alcohol

Creative Prompts

• Fiction

  Rewrite the valentine scene from Boldwood's point of view, from the moment he reads 'Marry me'.

• Essay

  Compare the three proposals Bathsheba receives and explain what each reveals about the man who makes it.

• Dialogue

  Imagine the talk in Warren's malthouse on the night news comes of Boldwood's reprieve.

• Classroom

  Make a farming calendar for Weatherbury from the novel: lambing, sheep-washing, shearing, harvest, the fair and Christmas.

Further Reading

• Under the Greenwood Tree, Thomas Hardy

  Hardy's earlier rural novel, which led to the Cornhill invitation.

• Tess of the d'Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy

• Thomas Hardy: The Time-Torn Man, Claire Tomalin

• Thomas Hardy: A Biography Revisited, Michael Millgate