Far from the Madding Crowd - wikipedia Far from the Madding Crowd For other uses, see Far from the Madding Crowd ( disambiguation ). Far from the Madding Crowd The title page from an 1874 first edition of Far from the Madding Crowd. Author Thomas Hardy Country England Language English Genre Novel Publisher Cornhill Magazine Publication date 1874 Pages 464 pages ( Harper & Brothers edition, 1912 ) Preceded by A Pair of Blue Eyes Followed by The Hand of Ethelberta Far from the Madding Crowd ( 1874 ) is Thomas Hardy 's fourth novel and his first major literary success. It originally appeared anonymously as a monthly serial in Cornhill Magazine, where it gained a wide readership. The novel is the first to be set in Hardy 's fictional region of Wessex in rural south west England. It deals in themes of love, honour and betrayal, against a backdrop of the seemingly idyllic, but often harsh, realities of a farming community in Victorian England. It describes the farmer Bathsheba Everdene, her life and relationships -- especially with her lonely neighbour William Boldwood, the faithful shepherd Gabriel Oak, and the thriftless soldier Sergeant Troy. On publication, critical notices were plentiful and mostly positive. Hardy revised the text extensively for the 1895 edition and made further changes for the 1901 edition. The novel was listed at number 48 on the BBC 's survey The Big Read in 2003. The book finished 10th on The Guardian 's list of greatest love stories of all time in 2007. The novel has been dramatised several times, notably in the Oscar - nominated 1967 film directed by John Schlesinger. Contents 1 Plot 1.1 Bathsheba 's valentine to Boldwood 1.2 Sergeant Troy returns 1.3 Fanny Robin 1.4 Climax 1.5 Ending 2 Title 3 Hardy 's Wessex 4 Honours 5 Adaptations 5.1 Radio 5.2 Comics 5.3 Film 5.4 Stage productions 5.4. 1 Dance 5.4. 2 Musical 5.4. 3 Opera 5.4. 4 Plays 5.5 Other 6 References in popular culture 6.1 Anime 6.2 Music 7 References 8 External links Plot Gabriel Oak is a young shepherd. With the savings of a frugal life, and a loan, he has leased and stocked a sheep farm. He falls in love with a newcomer six years his junior, Bathsheba Everdene, a proud beauty who arrives to live with her aunt, Mrs. Hurst. Over time, Bathsheba and Gabriel grow to like each other well enough, and Bathsheba even saves his life once. However, when he makes her an unadorned offer of marriage, she refuses ; she values her independence too much, and him too little. Feeling betrayed and embarrassed, Gabriel offers blunt protestations that only foster her haughtiness. After a few days, she moves to Weatherbury, a village some miles off. When next they meet, their circumstances have changed drastically. An inexperienced new sheepdog drives Gabriel 's flock over a cliff, ruining him. After selling off everything of value, he manages to settle all his debts but emerges penniless. He seeks employment at a hiring fair in the town of Casterbridge. When he finds none, he heads to another such fair in Shottsford, a town about ten miles from Weatherbury. On the way, he happens upon a dangerous fire on a farm and leads the bystanders in putting it out. When the veiled owner comes to thank him, he asks if she needs a shepherd. She uncovers her face and reveals herself to be none other than Bathsheba. She has recently inherited her uncle 's estate and is now wealthy. Though somewhat uncomfortable, she employs him. Bathsheba 's valentine to Boldwood Meanwhile, Bathsheba has a new admirer : the lonely and repressed William Boldwood. Boldwood is a prosperous farmer of about forty, whose ardour Bathsheba unwittingly awakens when -- her curiosity piqued because he has never bestowed on her the customary admiring glance -- she playfully sends him a valentine sealed with red wax on which she has embossed the words, `` Marry me ''. Boldwood, not realising the valentine was a jest, becomes obsessed with Bathsheba and soon proposes marriage. Although she does not love him, she toys with the idea of accepting his offer ; he is, after all, the most eligible bachelor in the district. However, she postpones giving him a definite answer. When Gabriel rebukes her for her thoughtlessness regarding Boldwood, she dismisses him. When Bathsheba 's sheep begin dying from bloat, she discovers to her chagrin that Gabriel is the only man who knows how to cure them. Her pride delays the inevitable, but finally she is forced to beg him for help. Afterwards, she offers him back his job and their friendship is restored. Sergeant Troy returns `` She took up her position as directed. '' Troy courts Bathsheba ; Cornhill illustration by Helen Paterson Allingham At this point, the dashing Sergeant Francis `` Frank '' Troy returns to his native Weatherbury and by chance encounters Bathsheba one night. Her initial dislike turns to infatuation after he excites her with a private display of swordsmanship. Gabriel observes Bathsheba 's interest in the young soldier and tries to discourage it, telling her she would be better off marrying Boldwood. Boldwood becomes aggressive towards Troy, and Bathsheba goes to Bath to prevent Troy returning to Weatherbury, as she fears Troy may be harmed on meeting Boldwood. On their return, Boldwood offers his rival a large bribe to give up Bathsheba. Troy pretends to consider the offer, then scornfully announces they are already married. Boldwood withdraws, humiliated, and vows revenge. Bathsheba soon discovers that her new husband is an improvident gambler with little interest in farming. Worse, she begins to suspect he does not love her. In fact, Troy 's heart belongs to her former servant, Fanny Robin. Before meeting Bathsheba, Troy had promised to marry Fanny ; on the wedding day, however, the luckless girl went to the wrong church. She explained her mistake, but Troy, humiliated at being left at the altar, angrily called off the wedding. When they parted, unbeknownst to Troy, Fanny was pregnant with his child. Fanny Robin Fanny Robin on her way to the Casterbridge workhouse. Cornhill illustration by Helen Paterson Allingham Some months later, Troy and Bathsheba encounter Fanny on the road, destitute, as she painfully makes her way toward the Casterbridge workhouse. Troy sends his wife onward with the horse and gig before she can recognise the girl, then gives Fanny all the money in his pocket, telling her he will give her more in a few days. Fanny uses up the last of her strength to reach her destination. A few hours later, she dies in childbirth, along with the baby. Mother and child are then placed in a coffin and sent home to Weatherbury for interment. Gabriel, who has long known of Troy 's relationship with Fanny, tries to conceal the child 's existence -- but Bathsheba agrees that the coffin can be left in her house overnight, from her sense of duty towards a former servant of the household. Her new servant, Liddy, repeats the rumour that Fanny had a child ; when all the servants are in bed, Bathsheba unscrews the lid and sees the two bodies inside. Troy then comes home from Casterbridge, where he had gone to keep his appointment with Fanny. Seeing the reason for her failure to meet him, he gently kisses the corpse and tells the anguished Bathsheba, `` This woman is more to me, dead as she is, than ever you were, or are, or can be ''. The next day he spends all his money on a marble tombstone with the inscription : `` Erected by Francis Troy in beloved memory of Fanny Robin... '' Then, loathing himself and unable to bear Bathsheba 's company, he leaves. After a long walk he bathes in the sea, leaving his clothes on the beach. A strong current carries him away, but he is rescued by a rowing boat. Climax A year later, with Troy presumed drowned, Boldwood renews his suit. Burdened with guilt over the pain she has caused him, Bathsheba reluctantly consents to marry him in six years, long enough to have Troy declared dead. Troy, however, is not dead. When he learns that Boldwood is again courting Bathsheba, he returns to Weatherbury on Christmas Eve to claim his wife. He goes to Boldwood 's house, where a party is under way, and orders Bathsheba to come with him ; when she shrinks back in surprise, he seizes her arm, and she screams. At this, Boldwood shoots Troy dead and tries unsuccessfully to turn the gun on himself. Although Boldwood is condemned to hang for murder, his friends petition the Home Secretary for mercy, citing insanity. This is granted, and Boldwood 's sentence is changed to `` confinement during Her Majesty 's pleasure ''. Bathsheba, profoundly chastened by guilt and grief, buries her husband in the same grave as Fanny and the child, and adds a suitable inscription. Ending Throughout her tribulations, Bathsheba comes to rely increasingly on her oldest and, as she admits to herself, only real friend, Gabriel. When he gives notice that he is leaving her employ, she realises how important he has become to her well - being. That night, she goes alone to visit him in his cottage, to find out why he is deserting her. Pressed, he reluctantly reveals that it is because people have been injuring her good name by gossiping that he wants to marry her. She exclaims that it is ``... too absurd -- too soon -- to think of, by far ! '' He bitterly agrees that it is absurd, but when she corrects him, saying that it is only `` too soon '', he is emboldened to ask once again for her hand in marriage. She accepts, and the two are quietly wed. Title Hardy took the title from Thomas Gray 's poem Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard ( 1751 ). Far from the madding crowd 's ignoble strife Their sober wishes never learn 'd to stray ; Along the cool sequester 'd vale of life They kept the noiseless tenor of their way. `` Madding '' here means `` frenzied ''. Lucasta Miller points out that the title is an ironic literary joke as Gray is idealising the noiselessness and sequestered calm whereas Hardy `` disrupts the idyll, and not just by introducing the sound and fury of an extreme plot... he is out to subvert his readers ' complacency ''. Hardy 's Wessex Far from the Madding Crowd offers in ample measure the details of English rural life that Hardy so relished. Weatherbury Church ( Puddletown ) Hardy first employed the term `` Wessex '' in Far from the Madding Crowd to describe the `` partly real, partly dream - country '' that unifies his novels of South West England. He found the word in the pages of early English history as a designation for an extinct, pre-Norman conquest kingdom, the Wessex from which Alfred the Great established England. In the first edition, the word `` Wessex '' is used only once, in chapter 50 ; Hardy extended the reference for the 1895 edition. The village of Puddletown, near Dorchester, is the inspiration for the novel 's Weatherbury. Dorchester, in turn, inspired Hardy 's Casterbridge. In The Mayor of Casterbridge, Hardy briefly mentions two characters from Far from the Madding Crowd -- Farmer Everdene and Farmer Boldwood, both in happier days. Honours In 2003, the novel was listed at number 48 on the BBC 's survey The Big Read. In 2007, the book finished 10th on the Guardian 's list of greatest love stories of all time. Adaptations Radio The novel was adapted by Graham White in 2012 into a three - part series on BBC Radio 4 's Classic Serial. The production was directed by Jessica Dromgoole and featured Alex Tregear as Bathsheba, Shaun Dooley as Gabriel, Toby Jones as Boldwood and Patrick Kennedy as Troy. Comics Tamara Drewe is a comic strip serial based upon a modern reworking of the novel by Posy Simmonds. It was itself adapted into a film, Tamara Drewe ( 2010 ), directed by Stephen Frears. Film Far from the Madding Crowd ( 1915 ) directed by Laurence Trimble, starring Florence Turner and Henry Edwards. Far from the Madding Crowd ( 1967 ) directed by John Schlesinger, starring Julie Christie as Bathsheba Everdene, Terence Stamp as Sergeant Troy, Peter Finch as Mr Boldwood, and Alan Bates as Farmer Oak. Far from the Madding Crowd ( 1998 ) directed by Nicholas Renton, starring Paloma Baeza, Nathaniel Parker, Jonathan Firth and Nigel Terry. Far from the Madding Crowd ( 2015 ) directed by Thomas Vinterberg, screenplay by David Nicholls, with Carey Mulligan as Bathsheba Everdene, Matthias Schoenaerts as Farmer Oak, Michael Sheen as Mr Boldwood, Tom Sturridge as Sergeant Troy and Juno Temple as Fanny Robin. Stage productions Dance Far from the Madding Crowd ( 1996 ) is a ballet by David Bintley for the Birmingham Royal Ballet Musical Far from the Madding Crowd ( 2000 ), a musical with music by Gary Schocker, based on the novel Opera Far from the Madding Crowd ( 2006 ) is an opera by Andrew Downes Plays Hardy wrote an 1882 stage adaptation with J. Comyns Carr, which starred Marion Terry In autumn 2008, English Touring Theatre ( ETT ) toured Britain with a new stage adaptation of Far from the Madding Crowd directed by Kate Saxon In March 2013 Myriad Theatre & Film toured South - East England with their original stage adaptation of Far from the Madding Crowd for five actors. The show also incorporated some of Hardy 's poetry. Other In October 2016, the first episode of a web series transmedia modernisation of the novel, Away from it All, was released. Based around the antics and video blogs of a group of twenty - somethings working at a village pub, the series was created by Hazel Jeffs. References in popular culture Anime Episode 20 of the anime Kill la Kill, is titled `` Far from the Madding Crowd ''. Music British musician Nick Bracegirdle, better known as Chicane, released Far from the Maddening Crowds, a studio album, in 1997. In 2000, the New York rock band Nine Days titled their debut The Madding Crowd to express their allegiance to modernity in opposition to Hardy. The Danish metal band Wuthering Heights released a studio album, Far From the Madding Crowd in 2004. Nanci Griffith included the lyric `` You 're a Saturday night, Far from the madding crowd '' in the song On Grafton Street on her 1994 release Flyer. References Jump up ^ Page, Norman, ed. ( 2000 ). Oxford Reader 's Companion to Hardy. Oxford : Oxford University Press. pp. 130 -- 132. Jump up ^ Higonnet, Margaret R., ed. ( 1992 ). Feminist essays on Hardy : the Janus face of gender. Urbana : University of Illinois Press. p. 59. ISBN 0252019407. Jump up ^ `` Madding ''. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language ( 4th ed. ). Jump up ^ Miller, Lucasta ( 25 April 2015 ). `` Far from the Madding Crowd, Does the film live up to Hardy 's novel ''. Guardian Review Section. Retrieved 3 May 2015. Jump up ^ Drabble, Margaret ( 1979 ). A Writer 's Britain : Landscape in Literature. Thames and Hudson. pp. 91 -- 8. Jump up ^ Hardy, Thomas. Far From the Madding Crowd : Preface, 1895 -- 1902. Jump up ^ Oxford Reader 's Companion to Hardy, ibid., p. 131. Jump up ^ Anonymous. Far from the Madding Crowd ( caption to frontispiece ). New York and London : Harper and Brothers Publications, 1912. Jump up ^ `` BBC -- The Big Read ''. BBC. April 2003, Retrieved 31 October 2012 Jump up ^ Wainwright, Martin ( 10 August 2007 ). `` Emily Brontë hits the heights in poll to find greatest love story ''. The Guardian. Retrieved 29 August 2009. Jump up ^ Kemp, Stuart ( 18 May 2008 ). `` BBC Films has diverse slate ''. The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 18 May 2008. Jump up ^ Fleming, Mike ( 16 September 2013 ). `` Searchlight Rounds Out ' Madding ' Cast With Michael Sheen, Juno Temple ''. Deadline.com. PMC. Retrieved 23 December 2013. Jump up ^ Mahoney, Elisabeth ( 2008 - 09 - 17 ). `` Far from the Madding Crowd ''. The Guardian. ISSN 0261 - 3077. Jump up ^ Muddled Thoughts & a Sunset. YouTube. 20 October 2016. Retrieved 1 October 2016. Jump up ^ `` The Madding Crowd ''. Allmusic.com. External links Wikisource has original text related to this article : Far from the Madding Crowd Far from the Madding Crowd at Project Gutenberg Far from the Madding Crowd public domain audiobook at LibriVox Helen Paterson Allingham 's illustrations for the serial edition, with extensive commentary, from Victorian Web. Far From the Madding Crowd Map Far from the Madding Crowd on The Literature Network Thomas Hardy Novels The Poor Man and the Lady ( 1867 ) Desperate Remedies ( 1871 ) Under the Greenwood Tree ( 1872 ) A Pair of Blue Eyes ( 1873 ) Far from the Madding Crowd ( 1874 ) The Hand of Ethelberta ( 1876 ) The Return of the Native ( 1878 ) The Trumpet - Major ( 1880 ) A Laodicean ( 1881 ) Two on a Tower ( 1882 ) The Mayor of Casterbridge ( 1886 ) The Woodlanders ( 1887 ) Tess of the d'Urbervilles ( 1891 / 92 ) Jude the Obscure ( 1895 ) The Well - Beloved ( 1897 ) Short story collections Wessex Tales ( 1888 ) A Group of Noble Dames ( 1891 ) Life 's Little Ironies ( 1894 ) A Changed Man and Other Tales ( 1913 ) Short stories `` The Three Strangers '' ( 1883 ) `` A Mere Interlude '' ( 1885 ) `` Alicia 's Diary '' ( 1887 ) `` Barbara of the House of Grebe '' ( 1891 ) `` The Fiddler of the Reels '' ( 1893 ) `` A Tragedy of Two Ambitions '' ( 1894 ) Poetry collections Wessex Poems and Other Verses ( 1898 ) Poems of the Past and the Present ( 1901 ) Time 's Laughingstocks ( 1909 ) Poems 1912 -- 13 Satires of Circumstance ( 1914 ) Moments of Vision ( 1917 ) Late Lyrics ( 1922 ) Human Shows ( 1925 ) Winter Words ( 1928 ) Poems `` Neutral Tones '' ( 1898 ) `` The Darkling Thrush '' ( 1901 ) `` The Ruined Maid '' ( 1901 ) `` The Respectable Burgher '' ( 1901 ) `` The Man He Killed '' ( 1902 ) `` A Trampwoman 's Tragedy '' ( 1903 ) `` The Convergence of the Twain '' ( 1915 ) `` The Blinded Bird '' ( 1916 ) Plays The Dynasts ( 1904 -- 1908 ) Related Thomas Hardy 's Wessex Egdon Heath Life Thomas Hardy 's Cottage Max Gate home Emma Gifford ( first wife ) Florence Dugdale ( second wife ) Thomas Hardy 's Far from the Madding Crowd ( 1874 ) Adaptations 1915 film ( lost ) 1967 film 1998 TV miniseries 2015 film Related Thomas Hardy 's Wessex Tamara Drewe ( comic strip ) Tamara Drewe ( film ) Wikisource texts Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Far_from_the_Madding_Crowd&oldid=802370596 '' Categories : 1874 British novels Novels by Thomas Hardy Works originally published in Cornhill Magazine Works published anonymously British novels adapted into films English novels Novels first published in serial form Victorian novels Novels set in Dorset British novels adapted into plays Novels adapted into television programs Hidden categories : EngvarB from September 2013 Use dmy dates from September 2013 All articles with unsourced statements Articles with unsourced statements from December 2014 Articles with Project Gutenberg links Articles with LibriVox links Talk Contents About Wikipedia Български Deutsch Español فارسی Français 한국어 Italiano עברית Magyar Nederlands Română Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски Svenska Türkçe Tiếng Việt Edit links This page was last edited on 25 September 2017, at 19 : 07. 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Question: who does bathsheba choose in far from the madding crowd
Answer: Gabriel