Far from the Madding Crowd — Thomas Hardy
You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org . If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook. Title : Far from the Madding Crowd Author : Thomas Hardy Release date : February 1, 1994 [eBook #107] Most recently updated: October 29, 2024 Language : English Other information and formats : www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/107 Credits : anonymous Project Gutenberg volunteers and revised by Joseph E. Loewenstein, M.D. *** START OF Various characteristics of each ebook are listed to aid in selecting the preferred file. Click on any of the filenumbers below to quickly view each ebook. 27 1874, First Edition; illustrated. 107 1895, Second Edition, extensively revised by Thomas Hardy. Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy Contents 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 Chapter LIII. Concurritur—Horæ 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 Notes The series of novels I projected being mainly of the kind called local, they seemed to require a territorial definition of some sort to lend unity to their scene. Finding that the area of a single county did not afford a canvas large enough for this purpose, and that there were objections to an invented name, I disinterred the old one. The press and the public were kind enough to welcome the fanciful plan, and willingly joined me in the anachronism of imagining a Wessex population living under Queen Victoria;—a modern Wessex of railways, the penny post, mowing and reaping machines, union workhouses, lucifer matches, labourers who could read and write, and National school children. But I believe I am correct in stating that, until the existence of this contemporaneous Wessex was announced in the present story, in 1874, it had never been heard of, and that the expression, “a Wessex peasant,” or “a Wessex custom,” would theretofore have been taken to refer to nothing later in date than the Norman Conquest. I did not anticipate that this application of the word to a modern use would extend outside the chapters of my own chronicles. But the name was soon taken up elsewhere as a local designation. The first to do so was the now defunct Examiner , which, in the impression bearing date July 15, 1876, entitled one of its articles “The Wessex Labourer,” the article turning out to be no dissertation on farming during the Heptarchy, but on the modern peasant of the south-west counties, and his presentation in these stories. Since then the appellation which I had thought to reserve to the horizons and landscapes of a merely realistic dream-country, has become more and more popular as a practical definition; and the dream-country has, by degrees, solidified into a utilitarian region which people can go to, take a house in, and write to the papers from. But I ask all good and gentle readers to be so kind as to forget this, and to refuse steadfastly to believe that there are any inhabitants of a Victorian Wessex outside the pages of this and the companion volumes in which they were first discovered. Moreover, the village called Weatherbury, wherein the scenes of the present story of the series are for the most part laid, would perhaps be hardly discernible by the explorer, without help, in any existing place nowadays; though at the time, comparatively recent, at which the tale was written, a sufficient reality to meet the descriptions, both of backgrounds and personages, might have been traced easily enough. The church remains, by great good fortune, unrestored and intact, and a few of the old houses; but the ancie