Far from the Madding Crowd

Hardy's fourth novel and first major literary success tells a story of love in all its guises. Gabriel Oak is a shepherd struggling to get ahead when Bathsheba Everdene moves next door. Though he loves her, she sees him as a friend and rejects him for two other suitors. After she leaves town, she and Gabriel are reunited years later, though now everything has changed. Hardy depicts the English cou...