Thomas Hardy
Far From the Madding Crowd
[a resource and activity page designed for Year 11 VCE Literature Students at Toorak College - Mt Eliza)
Links and Web Resources
Download the whole text of 'Far From the Madding Crowd' - Useful for finding that passage you love.
Bibliomania searchable study guides of the full text of 'Far From the Madding Crowd' -It's theire summary on the top right.
The American Academy of Poets salute to Thomas Hardy (this site features some of Hardy's best known poems)
A Hardy Tribute page with lotsof links, from Japan of all places.
Thomas Hardy Country: Know the landscape, and you have a better chance of knowing this writer.
Thomas Hardy: Poet and Novelist Lecture Notes and a good place to begin
Spark Notes on the novel. A bit basic but could be useful. Watch out for the pop up windows!
Summary: Its title taken from Thomas Gray’s Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard, Far from the Madding Crowd is one of Hardy’s ‘Wessex’ novels and the first of real substance. It takes place in the village of Weatherbury - unsophisticated compared to the modern city - where the central character Bathsheba Everdene who is loved by three men: the shepherd Gabriel Oak, Farmer Boldwood and Sergeant Troy. She marries the last of these three first, but each represents a different form of love. Troy is selfish and allows Fanny Robin to die in a workhouse after a misunderstanding and concurrently becomes involved with Bathsheba who he treats cruelly in turn over the course of their marriage. Troy disappears after the death. The story tells of Bathsheba’s life as Troy returns, is shot by Boldwood who is pronounce insane and as Gabriel’s simple and devoted love is finally appreciated.
A READING GUIDE to 'Far From the Maddding Crowd' - This is to help with your study and prepare for the exam. Note: all page references refer to the new and enlarged Penguin editon of 1996
