Am grünen Rand der Welt (1874)

Quite often I find classics can be tedious to read - the long winded and passive nature of the prose can make these works quite a slog. Not with FFTMC.

Thoroughly enjoyed reading this book, full of vivid characters and an evocatively described picturesque setting, contrasting with the often gritty plot.

Bathsheba is a character who you're not sure if you support her or want her to suffer(!), but she actually feels like a modern character - an independent, spirited woman, flirting with different men (leading them on just a bit!). She wants the attention from the guys - even if she doesn't actually want to be with them. Ultimately this leads to issues for her later on in the book.

Overall, a great book, well worth a read.

( )

I initially had trouble getting into the rhythm of reading "Far From the Madding Crowd." When I got the "hang of Hardy," I really enjoyed reading the book.
Miss Bathseba Everdene "scarcely knew the divinity’s name, Diana was the goddess whom Bathsheba instinctively adored. That she had never, by look, word, or sign, encouraged a man to approach her – that she had felt herself sufficient to herself, and had in the independence of her girlish heart fancied there was a certain degradation in renouncing the simplicity of a maiden existence to become the humbler half of an indifferent matrimonial whole – were facts now bitterly remembered."
After three men wanted to marry her, and one did, we were given the stories intertwined with that statement. They are stories that only Thomas Hardy can tell.
If you need a heroine, I give you Bathseba. "Deeds of endurance which seem ordinary in philosophy are rare in conduct, and Bathsheba was astonishing all around her now, for her philosophy was her conduct, and she seldom thought practicable what she did not practise. She was of the stuff of which great men’s mothers are made. She was indispensable to high generation, hated at tea parties, feared in shops, and loved at crises." ( )

SPOILER ALERT...

OK, as we suspect at the outset, the good guy gets the girl in the end.
We could have cut to the chase and had these two married within hours of meeting each other as seems to be the custom in his stories... but then we'd be deprived of a great read..
Hardy as always, tells a good story, full of interesting characters in a wonderful rural setting.
And such a way with words..
That's three in a row after Tess and the Mayor and now onto the next.. ( )

Reading as part of The Hardy reading group.

It is about Bathesheba and the 3 men who love her - Gabriel Oak, Mr Boldwood and Sergeant Troy. each have their own qualities but it is Gabriel who loves her first and always. She rejects his initial marriage proposal because she does not love him.

She comes to the attention of Boldwood, who has the farm next to her, after she sends him a Valentine's card partly in jest. Boldwood has difficulty accepting that she does not love him either, but gives her up when she becomes fascinated by Sergeant Troy, the educated soldier - fey in attachment, apart from drink, gambling and women as a whole - who is more in love with another woman but marries Bathsheba more for her money than anything. She soon learns her mistake and learns to hate him, especially when he keeps asking for money to go gambling.

His possible death by drowning opens her up to be courted by Boldwood again, who continues to pressure her into committing to marry him, even when he knows she doesn't love him. A party at Christmas has a detrimental effect on all concerned.

Finally, Gabriel, her one true love, gets his girl.

This is the fourth of his books and the one I've enjoyed the most so far. It has a more consistent narrative, with fewer breaks, even though I believe this was also released in serial form.

The descriptions of nature get better with this book. I believe the description of salvaging the crops during the storm is considered to be a classic scene of the genre.

Boldwood is a disconcerting and not very nice character, poor of social graces, who falls in love with a woman he's never talked to and virtually bullies her into committing to an engagement that she doesnt want. (Everyone agrees in the end that he's more than a little mad).

Troy is a glittering distraction, who can also manipulate women (but in a different way), playing on Bathesheba's insecurities in order to make her marry him immediately (she goes to Bath to talk to him and he "suggests" that he'll have to give in to chasing after some other pretty girl if she doesnt marry him immediately, so she does).

Gabriel is solid and steady, watching her make mistakes but never letting her down, even though he still loves her.

As for Bathesheba? I dont know about her. I think she grows up during this book, finally marrying the man we all know she should have in the first place. She manages to take care of her uncle's farm, even though some people think she wont and does realise her mistake in marrying Troy, especially the way she did it. ( )

I didn't hate it. ( )