Sr3yas's Reviews > Far From the Madding Crowd

Love is a possible strength in an actual weakness.

This is the tale of Bathsheba Everdene, a proud, independent and disarmingly beautiful woman who inherited her uncle's vast farm. Fearlessly, she enters men's world of farming and becomes mistress of the farm. She attracts different suitors between this transformation: Gabriel Oak, a hardworking and faithful shepherd, William Boldwood, a middle-aged bachelor with dignity and Sergeant Frank Troy, a flirtatious soldier.

For me, the story was an experience. Tomas Hardy's excellent writing transports you to Victorian England's beautiful farmlands filled with interesting and unique characters. I was reading as well as listening to an exceptional Librivox recording of the story at same time. This beautiful combination truly formed a trance like experience, creating a tangible connection between the characters and the reader. I listened to last 5 hours of 14 hour-long audiobook without a single break. I felt their pride, temptation, hopelessness, pain, insanity and love.

The story's strength lies in its characters and beautiful narration. As most of the readers, my favorite character was Gabriel Oak because of his calm and consistent nature throughout the story. (view spoiler)[Farmer Boldwood was the tragic one, a man of prosperity and dignity undone by his acts. Sergeant troy, while not evil, was the character that could invoke anger in the reader. (hide spoiler)]

But Bathsheba was something else entirely. I am still not sure what to think of that character! I despised her vanity, applauded her courage and independent nature, saddened by her pain. But most of the time I was confused by her action and thoughts.

Thomas Hardy is a wonderful writer. His subtle humor, physiological understanding of his characters and ability to transform the shade of story from pleasant to tragedy and vice versa is astonishing. Some of my favorite chapters were (view spoiler)[Fanny Robin's final journey to work house, Gabriel Oak and Bathsheba trying to save the farm from rain and reactions of Bathsheba and Troy in presence of Fanny's corpse (that chapter kind of resonated Shakespearean writing for me) (hide spoiler)]

When I finished the story, I stepped out, half expecting to find myself in lush mountains enveloped by calm breeze. Well, capital city's harsh traffic did a great job breaking that trance, of course.

"You were all but mine, and now you are not nearly mine. Everything is changed, and that by you alone, remember. You were nothing to me once, and I was contented; you are now nothing to me again, and how different the second nothing is from the first!"

Love is a possible strength.

Possible.