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Far from the Madding Crowd Summary
"Far from the Madding Crowd" by Thomas Hardy is a rich and complex novel set in the idyllic yet challenging rural landscape of Wessex, England. The story follows Bathsheba Everdene, a strong-willed and independent woman who inherits her uncle's farm and decides to manage it herself. Bathsheba's beauty and spirited nature attract three very different suitors, each of whom impacts her life significantly.
Gabriel Oak, a humble and reliable shepherd, is the first to fall in love with Bathsheba. After she rejects his proposal due to his lack of wealth, a series of misfortunes leads Gabriel to lose his own farm. He ends up working for Bathsheba, demonstrating unwavering loyalty and support despite his initial heartbreak.
William Boldwood, a prosperous and reserved farmer, becomes infatuated with Bathsheba after she playfully sends him a valentine. Misinterpreting her gesture as genuine affection, Boldwood becomes obsessed with the idea of marrying her. His intense feelings and social status make him a formidable suitor, but Bathsheba remains noncommittal.
Sergeant Francis Troy, a dashing and reckless soldier, captures Bathsheba's heart with his charm and romantic bravado. Ignoring Gabriel's warnings, she marries Troy impulsively. However, Troy's true nature soon surfaces, revealing his irresponsibility and deceit. The marriage quickly deteriorates, bringing Bathsheba great emotional and financial distress.
Parallel to Bathsheba's story is the tragic tale of Fanny Robin, a former lover of Troy who is abandoned by him. Fanny's fate and Troy's subsequent grief upon discovering her demise add depth to the narrative, highlighting the consequences of Troy's actions.
The climax of the novel occurs when Troy, presumed dead, suddenly reappears during a celebration at Boldwood's house. Boldwood, driven to desperation by his unrequited love and Troy's return, shoots Troy and is arrested. This event paves the way for Gabriel and Bathsheba to finally acknowledge their mutual affection.
The novel concludes with Bathsheba and Gabriel marrying quietly, finding solace and companionship in their partnership.
Far from the Madding Crowd Excerpt
CHAPTER I
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 congregation 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 pepper-and-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 lower extremities 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.
