Review:

There’s so much to say about Far From The Madding Crowd.

Let’s get the ugly over with. I’m not a fan of Thomas Hardy. I’ve tried to read a couple of his other books in high school and I couldn’t wait for them to be done.

But in all honesty, I watched the new film with Carey Mulligan first and then read the book so perhaps this helped me enjoy this classic.

The protagonist is clever, strong and smart, diving into working her dead uncle’s farm that she now owns. She isn’t afraid to get dirty and is fully invested in the people and the farm. Especially a shepherd she hires, Gabriel Oak. But let me say this now: she is annoying! Bathsheba is in this love triangle (square) that is kinda ridiculous, and mostly a fault of her own. The fact that most of the book is how to make amends for her stupid actions, but not really suffer for them, made me want to slap her. Gabriel and her have a history, where he had proposed and she refused before she was in this elevated position. Situation changed and now Gabriel is working for her.

Miss Everdeen is complicated and to Hardy’s credit, he does do a fair job of writing a forward thinking woman. That said, there were a few instances where she was so immature, boy crazy, love sick that I thought Hardy had a very low opinion about women. This bothered me, but I had to remind myself that she is still a very modern woman for this time (1874) so I forgave her (and the writer). Gabriel Oak was described perfectly, calm and quiet and stern, silently in love with her, noble. I loved how different he was to her and how they both complimented each other so well. However, he wasn’t very well developed as a character.

Troy and Mr. Boldwood, while promising at first, turn out to be very flat characters. Boldwood was the more interesting of the two but by the climax of the book, his motivation and thereby excuse for his actions is flimsy and I felt badly for him. Troy was just wretched and annoying.

The film does a really good job of being faithful to the book. I have to admit that if I hadn’t watched the film first, I probably woulnd’t have enjoyed the audiobook as much.