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Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781409059554 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Random House |
| Publication date: | 12/14/2010 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 448 |
| File size: | 2 MB |
About the Author
Date of Birth:
June 2, 1840Date of Death:
January 11, 1928Place of Birth:
Higher Brockhampon, Dorset, EnglandPlace of Death:
Max Gate, Dorchester, EnglandEducation:
Served as apprentice to architect James HicksRead an Excerpt
Chapter One
Description of Farmer Oak-An Incident
When Farmer Oak smiled, the corners of his mouth spread till they were within an unimportant distance of his ears, his eyes were reduced to chinks, and diverging wrinkles appeared round them, extending upon his countenance like the rays in a rudimentary sketch of the rising sun.
His Christian name was Gabriel, and on working days he was a young man of sound judgment, easy motions, proper dress, and general good character. On Sundays he was a man of misty views, rather given to postponing, and hampered by his best clothes and umbrella: upon the whole, one who felt himself to occupy morally that vast middle space of Laodicean neutrality which lay between the Communion people of the parish and the drunken section,--that is, he went to church, but yawned privately by the time the congegation reached the Nicene creed, and thought of what there would be for dinner when he meant to be listening to the sermon. Or, to state his character as it stood in the scale of public opinion, when his friends and critics were in tantrums, he was considered rather a bad man; when they were pleased, he was rather a good man; when they were neither, he was a man whose moral colour was a kind of pepperand-salt mixture.
Since he lived six times as many working-days as Sundays, Oak's appearance in his old clothes was most peculiarly his own--the mental picture formed by his neighbours in imagining him being always dressed in that way. He wore a low-crowned felt hat, spread out at the base by tight jamming upon the head for security in high winds, and a coat like Dr. Johnson's; his lowerextremities being encased in ordinary leather leggings and boots emphatically large, affording to each foot a roomy apartment so constructed that any wearer might stand in a river all day long and know nothing of damp--their maker being a conscientious man who endeavoured to compensate for any weakness in his cut by unstinted dimension and solidity.
Mr. Oak carried about him, by way of watch, what may be called a small silver clock; in other words, it was a watch as to shape and intention, and a small clock as to size. This instrument being several years older than Oak's grandfather, had the peculiarity of going either too fast or not at all. The smaller of its hands, too, occasionally slipped round on the pivot, and thus, though the minutes were told with precision, nobody could be quite certain of the hour they belonged to. The stopping peculiarity of his watch Oak remedied by thumps and shakes, and he escaped any evil consequences from the other two defects by constant comparisons with and observations of the sun and stars, and by pressing his face close to the glass of his neighbours' windows, till he could discern the hour marked by the green-faced timekeepers within. It may be mentioned that Oak's fob being difficult of access, by reason of its somewhat high situation in the waistband of his trousers (which also lay at a remote height under his waistcoat), the watch was as a necessity pulled out by throwing the body to one side, compressing the mouth and face to a mere mass of ruddy flesh on account of the exertion required, and drawing up the watch by its chain, like a bucket from a well.
But some thoughtful persons, who had seen him walking across one of his fields on a certain December morning--sunny and exceedingly mild--might have regarded Gabriel Oak in other aspects than these. In his face one might notice that many of the hues and curves of youth had tarried on to manhood: there even remained in his remoter crannies some relics of the boy. His height and breadth would have been sufficient to make his presence imposing, had they been exhibited with due consideration. But there is a way some men have, rural and urban alike, for which the mind is more responsible than flesh and sinew: it is a way of curtailing their dimensions by their manner of showing them. And from a quiet modesty that would have become a vestal which seemed continually to impress upon him that he had no great claim on the world's room, Oak walked unassumingly and with a faintly perceptible bend, yet distinct from a bowing of the shoulders. This may be said to be a defect in an individual if he depends for his valuation more upon his appearance than upon his capacity to wear well, which Oak did not.
He had just reached the time of life at which "young" is ceasing to be the prefix of "man" in speaking of one. He was at the brightest period of masculine growth, for his intellect and his emotions were clearly separated: he had passed the time during which the influence of youth indiscriminately mingles them in the character of impulse, and he had not yet arrived at the stage wherein they become united again, in the character of prejudice, by the influence of a wife and family. In short, he was twenty-eight, and a bachelor.
The field he was in this morning sloped to a ridge called Norcombe Hill. Through a spur of this hill ran the highway between Emminster and Chalk-Newton. Casually glancing over the hedge, Oak saw coming down the incline before him an ornamental spring waggon, painted yellow and gaily marked, drawn by two horses, a waggoner walking alongside bearing a whip perpendicularly. The waggon was laden with household goods and window plants, and on the apex of the whole sat a woman, young and attractive. Gabriel had not beheld the sight for more than half a minute, when the vehicle was brought to a standstill just beneath his eyes.
"The tailboard of the waggon is gone, Miss," said the waggoner.
Table of Contents
Biographical Note
Introduction
Map of Wessex
Author's Preface
1
Description of Farmer Oak - An Incident
1
2
Night - The Flock - An Interior - Another Interior
7
3
A Girl on Horseback - Conversation
15
4
Gabriel's Resolve - The Visit - The Mistake
24
5
Departure of Bathsheba - A Pastoral Tragedy
34
6
The Fair - The Journey - The Fire
40
7
Recognition - A Timid Girl
51
8
The Malthouse - The Chat - News
55
9
The Homestead - A Visitor - Half-Confidences
74
10
Mistress and Men
81
11
Outside the Barracks - Snow - A Meeting
88
12
Farmers - A Rule - An Exception
94
13
Sortes Sanctorum - The Valentine
100
14
Effect of the Letter - Sunrise
105
15
A Morning Meeting - The Letter Again
110
16
All Saints' and All Souls'
121
17
In the Market-Place
124
18
Boldwood in Meditation - Regret
127
19
The Sheep-Washing - The Offer
132
20
Perplexity - Grinding the Shears - A Quarrel
138
21
Troubles in the Fold - A Message
145
22
The Great Barn and the Sheep-Shearers
152
23
Eventide - A Second Declaration
163
24
The Same Night - The Fir Plantation
170
25
The New Acquaintance Described
177
26
Scene on the Verge of the Hay-Mead
181
27
Hiving the Bees
191
28
The Hollow Amid the Ferns
195
29
Particulars of a Twilight Walk
201
30
Hot Cheeks and Tearful Eyes
209
31
Blame - Fury
214
32
Night - Horses Tramping
223
33
In the Sun - A Harbinger
232
34
Home Again - A Trickster
240
35
At an Upper Window
251
36
Wealth in Jeopardy - The Revel
256
37
The Storm - The Two Together
265
38
Rain - One Solitary Meets Another
273
39
Coming Home - A Cry
277
40
On Casterbridge Highway
282
41
Suspicion - Fanny Is Sent For
289
42
Joseph and His Burden - Buck's Head
300
43
Fanny's Revenge
312
44
Under a Tree - Reaction
323
45
Troy's Romanticism
331
46
The Gurgoyle: Its Doings
336
47
Adventures by the Shore
344
48
Doubts Arise - Doubts Linger
347
49
Oak's Advancement - A Great Hope
353
50
The Sheep Fair - Troy Touches His Wife's Hand
359
51
Bathsheba Talks with Her Outrider
374
52
Converging Courses
383
53
Concurritur - Horae Momento
394
54
After the Shock
406
55
The March Following - "Bathsheba Boldwood"
411
56
Beauty in Loneliness - After All
416
57
A Foggy Night and Morning - Conclusion
426
Notes
433
Reading Group Guide
467
A Note on the Text
469
What People are Saying About This
Hardy's genius was unceratin in development, uneven in accomplishment, but, when the moment came, magnificent in achievement. The moment came, completely and fully, in Far From the Maddening Crowd. The subject was right; the poet and the countryman, the sensual man, the somber reflective man, the man of learning, all inlisted to produce a book which, however fashions may chop and change, must hold its place among the great English novels.
Hardy's genius was unceratin in development, uneven in accomplishment, but, when the moment came, magnificent in achievement. The moment came, completely and fully, in Far From the Maddening Crowd. The subject was right; the poet and the countryman, the sensual man, the somber reflective man, the man of learning, all inlisted to produce a book which, however fashions may chop and change, must hold its place among the great English novels.
Reading Group Guide
1. According to the scholar Howard Babb, Hardy’s depiction of Wessex “impinges upon the consciousness of the reader in many ways . . . as mere setting, or a symbol, or as a being in its own right.” How does environment serve as an integral part of this novel?
2. The title of Far from the Madding Crowd, borrowed from Thomas Gray’s “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard, ” celebrates the “cool, sequestered” lives of rural folks. Is the title ironic or appropriate?
3. The rustics who work the land, tend the sheep, and gather at Warren’s malt house have been likened to a Greek chorus. Can you support this analogy? What function do the rustics serve in the novel?
4. Time is a theme that weaves throughout the story. One example may be found in Chapter XVI, when Frank Troy stands rigidly in All Saints Church awaiting Fanny’s delayed arrival while a “grotesque clockwork” agonizingly marks each passing moment. Where else does Hardy employ the theme of time, and what purpose does it serve?
5. In Chapter IV, Bathsheba tells Gabriel, “I want somebody to tame me; I am too independent: and you would never be able to, I know.” How is Bathsheba “tamed” over the course of the novel, and who is responsible for her transformation?
6. How does the subordinate plot concerning Fanny Robin and Sergeant Troy serve as a contract to the main storyline?
7. What do Bathsheba Everdene and Fanny Robin have in common, and how do they differ? And what does Hardy’s portrayal of these two women reveal about Victorian moral standards?
8. In Gabriel Oak, Sergeant Troy, andFarmer Boldwood, Hardy has depicted three very different suitors in pursuit of Bathsheba Everdene. What distinguishes each of these characters, and what values does each of them represent?
9. Two particular episodes in Far from the Madding Crowd are often cited for their profound sensuality: Sergeant Troy’s seduction of Bathsheba through swordplay (Chapter XXVIII), and Gabriel’s sheep-shearing scene (Chapter XXII). What elements does Hardy employ to make these scenes so powerful?
10. At the end of the novel, Hardy describes the remarkable bond between Gabriel and Bathsheba: “Theirs was that substantial affection which arises . . . 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.” How does this relationship serve as a contrast to other examples of love and courtship throughout the novel? Consider Bathsheba and her three suitors, as well as Fanny Robin and Sergeant Troy.