Far from the Madding Crowd

A Woman Farmer and Her Three Suitors

Thomas Hardy

• Publisher: Aeneas Press
• Year: 2026
• Topic: Literature
• eBook ISBN:
  9785486694851
• Subtopic: Classics
• Index: Literature

A woman inherits a farm and runs it herself, and three men want her: the shepherd who waits, the farmer who breaks, and the soldier who does not deserve her. Hardy published it serially and anonymously, and readers guessed George Eliot. It paid well enough that he gave up architecture for good and named his imaginary county Wessex for the first time here. Forty-seven plates of sheepfolds, dairymaids and pastoral landscape by painters including Frederick Sargent and William Shayer follow the flocks and fields of Hardy's Wessex.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Copyright
• Preface
• Chapter I. Description of Farmer Oak—An Incident
• Chapter II. Night—The Flock—An Interior—Another Interior
• Chapter III. A Girl on Horseback—Conversation
• Chapter IV. Gabriel’s Resolve—The Visit—The Mistake
• Chapter V. Departure of Bathsheba—A Pastoral Tragedy
• Chapter VI. The Fair—The Journey—The Fire
• Chapter VII. Recognition—A Timid Girl
• Chapter VIII. The Malthouse—The Chat—News
• Chapter IX. The Homestead—A Visitor—Half-Confidences
• Chapter X. Mistress and Men
• Chapter XI. Outside the Barracks—Snow—A Meeting
• Chapter XII. Farmers—A Rule—An Exception
• Chapter XIII. Sortes Sanctorum—The Valentine
• Chapter XIV. Effect of the Letter—Sunrise
• Chapter XV. A Morning Meeting—The Letter Again
• Chapter XVI. All Saints’ and All Souls’
• Chapter XVII. In the Market-Place
• Chapter XVIII. Boldwood in Meditation—Regret
• Chapter XIX. The Sheep-Washing—The Offer
• Chapter XX. Perplexity—Grinding the Shears—A Quarrel
• Chapter XXI. Troubles in the Fold—A Message
• Chapter XXII. The Great Barn and the Sheep-Shearers
• Chapter XXIII. Eventide—A Second Declaration
• Chapter XXIV. The Same Night—The Fir Plantation
• Chapter XXV. The New Acquaintance Described
• Chapter XXVI. Scene on the Verge of the Hay-Mead
• Chapter XXVII. Hiving the Bees
• Chapter XXVIII. The Hollow Amid the Ferns
• Chapter XXIX. Particulars of a Twilight Walk
• Chapter XXX. Hot Cheeks and Tearful Eyes
• Chapter XXXI. Blame—Fury
• Chapter XXXII. Night—Horses Tramping
• Chapter XXXIII. In the Sun—A Harbinger
• Chapter XXXIV. Home Again—A Trickster
• Chapter XXXV. At an Upper Window
• Chapter XXXVI. Wealth in Jeopardy—The Revel
• Chapter XXXVII. The Storm—The Two Together
• Chapter XXXVIII. Rain—One Solitary Meets Another
• Chapter XXXIX. Coming Home—A Cry
• Chapter XL. On Casterbridge Highway
• Chapter XLI. Suspicion—Fanny Is Sent for
• Chapter XLII. Joseph and His Burden—Buck’s Head
• Chapter XLIII. Fanny’s Revenge
• Chapter XLIV. Under a Tree—Reaction
• Chapter XLV. Troy’s Romanticism
• Chapter XLVI. The Gurgoyle: Its Doings
• Chapter XLVII. Adventures by the Shore
• Chapter XLVIII. Doubts Arise—Doubts Linger
• Chapter XLIX. Oak’s Advancement—A Great Hope
• Chapter L. The Sheep Fair—Troy Touches His Wife’s Hand
• Chapter LI. Bathsheba Talks with Her Outrider
• Chapter LII. Converging Courses
• II.
• III.
• IV.
• V.
• VI.
• VII.
• Chapter LIII. Concurritur—Horae Momento
• Chapter LIV. After the Shock
• Chapter LV. The March Following—“Bathsheba Boldwood”
• Chapter LVI. Beauty in Loneliness—After All
• Chapter LVII. A Foggy Night and Morning—Conclusion
• About the Author