Far from the Madding Crowd

The first of the three suitors that Bathsheba needs to cope with is shepherd Gabriel Oak, who is financially crumbling by his sheepdog driving his flock over a cliff, and who is now forced to work for her on her farm. The second suitor is Boldwood, a farmer, to whom Bathsheba foolishly sends an unidentified valentine, which he takes so earnestly that he falls in love with her. The third suitor is the dashing Sergeant Troy, who is in love with Bathsheba’s maid Fanny Robin. But he cannot marry her because she goes to the wrong church for the ceremonies. Far from the Madding Crowd is perhaps the most renowned and most amusing of Hardy’s works. Although the acquainted themes of misery and unfaithfulness are manifested, it is the creation of Hardy’s extremely intimate and first-hand knowledge of the human conflicts, habits, and idiosyncrasies of men and women set in a rural background.