“Far From the Madding Crowd” by Thomas Hardy

Why on earth did I leave it so long to read this? It is because I always assume that Harry’s novels are going to be depressing with operatic endings. This one is not like that at all. It is a rattling good story, told in sumptuous prose, with four wonderfully drawn central characters. It also represents a marvellously vivid portrait of life in a small Dorset farming community in the middle of the nineteenth century. A complete and total classic.

The story revolves around a young woman called Bathsheba Everdene who inherits a reasonably large farm from her uncle and decides to run it herself with the help of a group of loyal employees. Three very different men then start to compete for her hand and she effectively has to decide which of them she is going to marry. One of the three, though, turns out to be a wrong’un and this revelation gives the story further twists as it proceeds.

As with all Thomas Hardy novels, despite having been written 150 years ago, this feels very contemporary. It is not like reading Dickens. You do not have to adjust too much to a dated style of writing. It is also modern in that the central character is a woman who is clever, independent and strong-willed. She calls the shots. But she is of course living at a time when on marriage all her property and the power that comes with being a property owner will pass to her husband. This reality inevitably acts as a restriction when she is deciding about when to marry, whether to marry and to whom she should get engaged.

The story twists and turns, and being Hardy, does of course contain a great deal of tragic stuff. The characters are challenged in all sorts of pretty unpleasant ways. But there is plenty of light too. And, an unexpected happy ending too.

So enjoyable. So satisfying. A completely unforgettable novel. A very fine read.