Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas HardyMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
I began this book with quite a high expectation of enjoying it. Having watched the film of the novel twice in the past I thought I understood the plot and I found the old country farming setting and characters very likeable. But as usual there was a lot more in the book’s narrative that was, necessarily, glossed over in the film. I found Bathsheba Everdene and William Boldwood to be very irritating in their attitudes towards each other. Bathsheba was far too childish for a while but then unreasonably arrogant in her behaviour at other times. Boldwood came across as unbelievably naïve, and lacking in worldly wisdom despite being the much older person. His lack of maturity was hard to take. Liddy, the lady’s maid to Bathsheba comes across as delightfully loyal to her mistress. She acts as a friend and advisor to Bathsheba, despite Bathsheba’s frequent rude dismissal from her presence. An example of typical behaviour towards servants no doubt.
The most consistent of the characters, Gabriel Oake a shepherd, and Sergeant Troy, a shallow but dashing rake, merit the reader’s attention throughout the story. One of the things about the book I found frustrating was Hardy’s often inclusion of rather long and boring diatribes about a character’s personality or behaviour. They were far too wordy and uninteresting. I was quite surprised by this because of how much I had enjoyed ‘The Mayor of Casterbridge’ and ‘The Trumpet Major’ with their quite different themes.
View all my reviews
RSS Feed
