Far from the Madding Crowd

Macmillan Readers

by John Escott (Adapted by), Thomas Hardy

′Love is a possible strength in an actual weakness.′ Beautiful, impulsive and spirited, Bathsheba Everdene′s fortunes are changed forever when she inherits her own farm and becomes a woman of independent means. Set in Hardy′s evocative Wessex countryside, Bathsheba is pursued by three very different suitors. The reliable and humble Gabriel Oak, the vain and impetuous Troy and the reserved yet determined Boldwood. With the morals of rural society weighing heavily upon her, it is through these relationships that Bathsheba experiences the torture of unrequited love and betrayal and discovers how random acts of chance and tragedy can alter the pathway of a life dramatically.

96 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

John Escott started by writing children's books and comic scripts, but now writes and adapts books for students of all ages. He especially enjoys writing crime and mystery thrillers, and is a member of the British Crime Writers Association.

With Oxford University Press John has published London for the Oxford Bookworms Factfile series; Agatha Christie, Woman of Mystery, Star Reporter, Girl on a Motorbike, The Fly and Other Horror Stories, and The Scarlet Letter for the Oxford Bookworms Library series; The Magician, Time for a Robbery, Star for a day, Tomorrow's Girl, and The Man with Three NAMEs for the Hotshot Puzzles series; and A Pretty Face for the Dominoes series.

Reviews

[Janete on hiatus due health issues · Rating 3 out of 5]

Learning English by myself Project. A retold and abridged text for pre-intermediate students + audio. This was just an okay reading for me. This is the second time that I read this book and listened to the audio. I'm happy that at this time I could easily understand it.

[Jerawan Meesangnilverakul · Rating 2 out of 5]

I do like this adaptation.
But this adaptation has one problem.
Yes, it's a book for learning English, so I don't blame that.
But everything seems to move fast, especially about the relationship between Gabrielle Oak and Bathsheba Everdene.

It concludes climaxes, but the one that disappoints me is this.
I know from the beginning that Gabrielle is our hero.
But it doesn't show anything between them.

I'm so disappointed.

When does she have feelings for him, by the way? She always love someone else.

But everything moves so fast.
And now she ends up with him without showing us how their relationship going.

[Tayyip Mostafa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Far From the Madding Crowd: Book Review

Have you ever felt like being controlled by your fate? Do you think almost everything is liable to chance and circumstances? What is true love? Is it possible for a woman to be independent? Is marriage a trap? Does rural life render purity and peace unlike urban life which makes you corrupt and restless? How much can you possibly suffer because of your indiscretion and vanity? The nineteenth-century realist, Victorian novel Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy, in my opinion, is a gripping tale that tries to answer the above questions. The novel uncovers the story of a young shepherd Gabriel Oak and his beloved Bathsheba Everdene; the former is a conscientious, loyal and reliable man while the latter is a spirited, independent and impulsive woman. Moreover, Bathsheba is being loved by three men who are quite different from one another in terms of disposition, character, temperament and class. Their pathetic love-rectangle not only complicates their present life, but also jeopardizes their future as it brings about a chain of heartbreaks resulting from unrequited love and loss of trust, insanity resulting from obsession, and skepticism resulting from fear and silence. The atmospheric setting of the rural, fictional regions of Wessex effectively depicts the imagery employed by the author in a bid to convey his intended meaning.

When Gabriel Oak, having secured a promising future as a shepard and bailiff, falls for Bathsheba, he seizes the opportunity and purposes her; however, she refuses him, saying that she deserves someone better and that she wants to keep her independence for a while, so Gabrial stops thinking about it. Soon Gabriel's prosperity is obliterated by an incident wherein he loses his borrowed sheep and ends up penniless after paying his debts. On his way to find work, he comes across a large fire in certain farm which he skillfully puts out with the help of some workers on the farm. To his surprise, it is Bathsheba's farm which she has recently inherited from his late uncle. Gabriel offers his services as a shepherd, which Bathsheba accepts. Meanwhile, Bathsheba is being courted by two other guys: Boldwood, a prosperous farmer; Francis Troy, a soldier. The former lives near her farm while the latter meets him one night by chance. Being impulsive and headstrong, Bathsheba feels attracted to the soldier, thereby raging both Gabriel and Boldwood; however, Gabriel never freaks out while Boldwood does, which makes her marry the soldier recklessly. Therefore, the after effects of their love-rectangle lead to terrible events and consequences entailing disasters, death, and secrets.

Using third-person omniscient viewpoint which is highly thoughtful and reflective, the narrator, despite alternating from character to character, introduces us to five main characters: Gabriel, Bathsheba, Troy, Fanny, and Boldwood. All these characters are struggling with their emotions and suffering from their respective fates throughout the plot. Some finds solace eventually while others meet a tragic end. Also, the lives of these characters depict the idea of human development as a result of constant transition, showing that Hardy is influenced by Charles Darwin's theory that all species evolve circumstantially. In the same way, the author introduces various foils which highlights either good or bad qualities of both protagonists and antagonists.

As for style and language, the novel is written in a very formal language, which is the hallmark of almost all Victorian novels. However, when the author introduces characters belonging to lower class of the society, he employs dialectal language, thereby highlighting class difference. As for literary techniques, the author shrewdly and gracefully draws upon a number of literary devices, such as imagery, irony, metaphor, simile, allusion, symbolism, rhythm, parallelism, comic relief, understatement, foreshadowing, and so on.

In short, having read this fascinating tragic-comedy, I recommend it to all literary people as it comprises a great deal of human experience, which provides several aspects of human life to think about. Since the novel is written in a very formal language, readers are often enforced to consult a good dictionary for clear comprehension of text. Plus, readers might struggle with understanding complex and compound sentence-structures since the author utilizes both of them while providing sensational and interesting descriptions of people, emotions, events and landscape. All in all, it's a worth-reading romance novel.

Thanks for reading!

PS: This is just my opinion which I'm duly entitled to. If any group-member has already read this novel and wants to share their views, they are heartily welcome to constructive criticism in the comment section.

#FarFromtheMaddingCrowd
#ThomasHardy
#BookReview

[Parveen Harnam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quite recently, I came across the 2015 adaptation of the book. So beautiful and utterly captivating was the adaptation, that there lay in me - very suddenly - a need to read it. It was an endeavour a few weeks in the making, a lesser mentioned classic such as this is hard to find in this part of the world. I finally did find it in a second hand bookstore.

To start off, the book is far richer than the movie (which is of no surprise to anyone). Tonally, the movie and the book differ significantly. I read somewhere that the 70's adaptation is truer to Hardy's writing. As for Hardy's prose, there is no denying that he had a remarkable way with words. He manipulates the English language in a truly distinct manner, which made Far From the Madding Crowd a maddening but rewarding ride!

Without a shadow of a doubt, Hardy was way ahead of his time. Bathsheba is a feminist protagonist that could have been written today. The character is complex and layered. Her progression from a naive, proud girl to a woman who remains strong and independent against the ravages of time as well as pain is tangibly real. All women are Bathsheba and Bathsheba is all women.

As for Oak, Boldwood and of course, Troy, these characters are far more three dimensional in the book. There is a sense of moral responsibility and ruthlessness in all of them (and yes that includes Oak). It is Oak who wins because of his sheer might and perseverance.

To quote any line from the book would be to do the writer a great injustice. I simply cannot choose. Every chapter is thoughtful, every page is worthy and every line filled with evocative messages. If you love literature as I do, this book will not disappoint. Perhaps as it will be for me, the book will remain in your mind for as long as you have a mind to speak of.

[Katarína Ristveyová · Rating 4 out of 5]

The free spirited Bathsheba meets three men,who help her navigate her heart and life - even sometimes making her miserable.. Quite a feminist, Bathsheba is at first set on never marrying, being content on just taking care of her own farm..but there are men, who wouldn't take no for an answer, who would try to charm her, and would stay close to her and help her through everything..The book is beautifully written - no wonder it was a bestseller, later made into a movie..

[Jesús López López · Rating 2 out of 5]

Bueno, Creo que es una historia de amor y de por si no me gustan las historias de amor. Con respecto a los personajes principales: Gabriel el cual desaparece en distintas partes de la historia y mágicamente reaparece en otras, y a Bathsheba, la odio,no la soporto, no termino de entender, en realidad no termino de entender a ningún personaje de la historia. Lo menos que esperaba para una mujer como Bathsheba era infelicidad, aunque a veces me daba pena, Creo que lo mejor de la historia fue lo de Boldwood y su pistola. Pero en fin, no puedo cambiar la historia.
En si no me gusto nada.
"-She´s handsome woman-said the gatekeeper
-That´s true-said Oak-But unfortunately, she knows it"
"-How can you be so cruel!- he cried- You gave me hope, and then you took it away.
-I did not give you hope!- she said- You chose to have hope, sir. I can not love in the way that you love"
"Eight months earlier he had fought against fire in the same placs. Now he was fighting against the water. And he was here because he loved the same woman. "
Calificación final: 2 estrellas

[Sara · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting that both Bathsheba and Sue ('Jude the Obscure') have horrifically misplaced senses of duty. Hardy is scaring me off marriage!

[Ursa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful!