Far From The Madding Crowd, version 2

Written by Thomas Hardy

Narrated by LibriVox Community

Far From The Madding Crowd is Hardy's fourth novel. It centres on the lives of five characters: Gabriel Oak, Bathsheba Everdene, Mr Boldwood, Sgt. Troy and Fanny Robin. The plot involves love, loyalty, death and betrayal and all this is delivered to us in Hardy's most eloquent prose. The images of character and nature are painted for our mind's eye with sublime style. Finally, but not least, Hardy's use of the Greek chorus is unsurpassed in injecting comedy and nudging the story along. (Summary by Tadhg Hynes)

Proof-Listeners: Joy Easton & Betty M.

• Language: English
• Publisher: LibriVox
• Release date: Aug 25, 2014

Thomas Hardy

Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) is best known for his novels, Far from the Madding Crowd (1874), Return of the Native (1878), The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886), Tess of the D'Urbervilles (1891), and Jude the Obscure (1895), which was denounced as morally objectionable. Hardy, disgusted with this reaction, declared he would never write fiction again and devoted the rest of his literary career to poetry.