Literary Fiction
WordsWorth Classic
Paperback
One of the best Victorian novels... a must-read for book lovers who want to invest in reading classics.
Thomas Hardy is certainly one among the forerunners of English fiction – novels. His writing complimented his emotional excursions that dealt with several problems of his time and times to come. His agony took the shape of pessimism and blurred his mstery over the language and expression at times. However, no one can deny that Hardy is, still, the novelist that many readers want to read if they wish to read something known as ‘classical’ or traditional in terms of novels. Today, I will be writing about one of his evergreen novels, Far from the Madding Crowd.
Published in 1874, the novel Far from the Madding Crowd has been included in various universities syllabuses and has been read by millions of readers worldwide. Often touted as a romantic novel, critics also find a lot to bash the novelist – treatment of women and also showing the lead female character in a bad light. Leaving the assumptions and biases aside, what a reader gets to read is certainly a typical Victorian set up – a shepherd who is pure at heart and a maiden who is headstrong and proud.
The story of love, betrayal, compulsions, and feminine adventure become a little clumsy when the readers realise that ‘destination’ holds the ultimate command. Though poetic justice is duly delivered in the form of Bathsheba marrying Gabriel at the end of the novel, it might be seen more as the destiny rather than the triumph of love. Do you agree here? Far from the Madding Crowd is actually a novel that establishes the fact – love does win but after being defeated by betrayal and helplessness and lust…
Whatever be the case, readers will certainly find the novel very interesting because of language, plot and sincerity of Gabriel Oak. Thomas Hardy has left no stone unturned in making the novel a page-turner within his limitations and he has been fairly successful in his drive. You can read this novel by getting a copy of this novel from Amazon. I have added the link below:
review by Vikas Yadav for Book Reviews Lab
