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MonkeyNotes-Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy
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LITERARY/HISTORICAL INFORMATION
The editor of "Cornhill Magazine" asked Hardy to write a novel.
That novel would be a pastoral tale about a female farmer and a
shepherd. He would call the novel Far from the Madding Crowd.
When Hardy submitted only an outline of the story rather than a
completed manuscript, the editor withdrew his offer. Hardy
continued to write the novel and published the book in 1874. It
became his first novel to be popular with the public; and it also
brought him some financial success.
Even though Far from the Madding Crowd is one of Hardy's early
novels, his philosophy of life is clearly reflected within its pages.
Hardy believed that human beings are essentially tragic creatures
that are destined to suffer. Gabriel Oak definitely suffers in the
novel. His hopes of becoming a prosperous shepherd-farmer are
frustrated and his love for Bathsheba is not fulfilled for a long
time. Fanny's premature death at childbirth is tragic. Boldwood and
Sergeant Troy meet with tragic deaths. Bathsheba's life is wrecked
almost completely by her marriage to Troy. Obviously, all the
characters in the novel suffer a great deal, partly on account of
their shortcomings and of the circumstances in which they are
placed. The only characters that are happy throughout the novel are
the rustic characters that provide relief through their humor.
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