Far from the Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
A novel of rural life in which a woman gains financial independence and has to choose between three different suitors. My favourite Hardy so far.
Lots of spoilers ahead for the book, so beware if you haven’t already read it!
I had read a few Hardy novels before Far from the Madding Crowd but this is the first one that I really loved. The plot is simple: it's about a young woman, Bathsheba Everdene, and her three suitors, Gabriel Oak, William Boldwood and Sergeant Frank Troy. Bathsheba starts the novel in relative poverty, but inherits a substantial farm and doesn't need to marry for wealth. Unfortunately, her financial independence and her naivety leads her to make the worst possible choice of husband and she soon repents of it. Hardy also introduces a foil to Bathsheba, Fanny Price, a young seamstress who was due to marry Sergeant Troy.
Around this basic plot, Hardy produces a detailed picture of the work and rhythms of rural life. Gabriel, Boldwood and Bathsheba all work on farms (when Bathsheba inherits, she decides that she will take charge of the farm herself, rather than employing a bailiff). Hardy also creates a number of minor characters who work on Bathsheba's farm and who richness and texture to the story. For instance, there are some scenes where the farm labourers comment on the happenings in the village, giving another perspective on the main characters. There are also some beautiful descriptions of the landscape of Wessex, a fictionalised version of southwest England (in Far from the Madding Crowd, Wessex is based on the landscape of Dorset, but Hardy expanded the area in future novels to cover other counties of England).
Bathsheba is an interesting, flawed heroine. She's very young and immature at times. For instance, she's beautiful and used to people admiring her. Farmer Boldwood doesn't look at her at any of the local sales and, piqued, she sends a valentine to him in which she pretends to be deeply in love with him. She thinks this will be an amusing jape. Unfortunately this precipitates an infatuation on his part that has tragic consequences. She can also be capricious and imperious – she changes her moods rapidly and often takes these changes out on her companion, Liddy. She also doesn't appreciate Gabriel's attempts to speak to her when she's done something obviously wrong. And of course, her judgment of her romantic suitors is lacking. However, she's also admirably bold and determined. I liked how willing she was to take on the business of teaching herself how to farm, and negotiating business for herself.
I've seen Hardy described as a realist and I can understand that description, in that his work isn't obviously romantic, and it features plenty of reversals (Bathsheba, Farmer Boldwood and Gabriel all suffer reverses in their farming). Hardy also creates complex, psychologically realistic characters. However, to me, Far from the Madding Crowd feels like a book that's moving in and out of several genres rather than being a purely realist book per se. As I've said, it's a novel concerned with presenting a picture of rural life, and a Bildungsroman of sorts.But there's also plenty of sensation and melodrama in the novel, with a tragic death at a workhouse, a murder, and a slide into insanity. And there's a big emphasis on chance or destiny– so many things happen which, if they just happened in a different way, would have huge consequences for various characters, and some things happen which, once they've started, feel inevitable.
When I reached the point where Bathsheba started to regret her marriage, Hardy's work reminded me a little of The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James, which has a very similar plot (a young woman is given financial independence and makes the worst possible match from her three suitors). Henry James was writing after Far from the Madding Crowd, and he knew of the novel – he actually wrote a review in which he criticised Hardy for being too wordy. (As an aside, he's right in part, Hardy did have the Victorian tendency to overwrite, but it's also a hilarious criticism coming from the king of prolixity.) A comparison of one key moment in the two – illustrates the difference between Hardy's writing and a novel written in a more realist vein. In Far From the Madding Crowd, Bathsheba is in a kitchen with the coffin of the woman Troy loved before her, and she decides to open the coffin to see if the woman was with child. There follows a stormy scene with her husband over the open coffin. So although we get an insight into Bathsheba's state of mind, the scene definitely contains elements of sensation and melodrama. In contrast, Isobel Archer's consideration of her marriage takes place by contrast by a fireside over the small hours of the night. Alone, she sinks deeper and deeper into her thoughts, and James pushes his exploration of her interiority further and further. This isn't a criticism of Hardy, but I don't think he was interested in writing in a purely realist fashion.
As I said, I listened to this on audiobook through the Audrey app. It does something a little different from most classics as each book has a 'guide', who provides a little bit of commentary on aspects of each chapter, links to relevant discussions or articles, illustrations of the book or works of art that they inspired etc. Having listened to a couple of classics on there, I think that I definitely like listening to them from time to time – the readings just give you a slightly different interpretation from when you're looking at the words on the page only.
What I've been reading this week
I've deviated from my planned reading somewhat this week. I don't think I've read any more of Irish Ghost Stories. I possibly will this evening and if not then, tomorrow. I'm also only about two chapters into Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (Mr Hyde is just about to make his appearance).
However, I have finished Rio Muerto by Ricardo Silva Romero. A home removals man, Solemon, is killed by the paramilitary gang who hold sway over the fictional town of Belen de Chami for the simple crime of helping everyone in the town. The story is about the aftermath of his death, when his wife, Hipolita, tries to find someone to kill her and her two sons, Maximillian and Segundo. It's an intense, gripping read, tense at times, occasionally funny, and different to anything else that I've read this year. I'll be reviewing this on Instagram next week.
I also read We'll Prescribe you a Cat by Syou Ishida. People experiencing troubles at work, or in their relationships, or just general unhappiness find themselves locating what seems like a medical clinic in Kyoto. However, the treatment for every condition is the same: "We'll prescribe you a cat", on the basis that cats can cure most problems. And guess what? They do! Although not necessarily in the way that their patients expect. This is a cute, whimsical read, but I found it more engaging than something like Before the Coffee gets Cold. There is a lot of cooing over cats in the book, so it probably won’t do much for you if you’re a dog person.
Finally, I started All Things Bright and Beautiful by James Herriot. This is the second volume of five in the repackaged series of his memoirs, and it contains books three and four of the original series. In the books, he's become Siegfried's partner in the practice, and he's just gotten married to Helen. It's a wonderfully comforting read, a slice of life in which very funny moments occur, along with others of peril and tragedy. I started it when I was feeling a bit down earlier this week and it really cheered me up.
Have a lovely week! I'll be back on Sunday with some thoughts on a recently-reissued book, the 1981 Booker-shortlisted Rhine Journey by Ann Schlee.