Because this is a Thomas Hardy novel, her relationship troubles are compounded by a sudden lemming-like mass sheep suicide, the destruction of countless bales of hay by both fire and rain, Gabriel’s complete financial ruin, and the death of a pregnant young woman on the moors. Knowing the great respect Boldwood has within their community, and also wanting to spare him the pain of humiliation, Bathsheba tries to find a way to let him down kindly. Shyly and awkwardly, he endeavours to court our heroine. He has never been romantically interested in anyone before, and the feelings Bathsheba stirs in him he finds both exciting and terrifying. But the effect of this letter is life-changing for Boldwood. As a lifelong bachelor, she means it as a teasing joke.

In a fairly impetuous whim, she writes him an anonymous love letter. We first meet Boldwood as a competing farmer to Bathsheba, and she is so offended by his dismissive way of treating her that she decides to play a prank on him.

Collins, this man is Farmer Boldwood and he becomes arguably the most tragic figure in a very very very tragic book. A third suitor soon comes on the scene as well, but rather than the comic relief of Pride & Prejudice’s Mr. Wickham, here in the form of the mustachioed and obviously terrible Sergeant Troy. In so doing, she flees from him and into the arms of basically Pride & Prejudice’s Mr. Darcy, confesses his love too soon and using the wrong words. He loves Bathsheba immediately for her ferocious independence and hidden vulnerability but, a la Pride & Prejudice‘s Mr. Rather than enduring a series of lethal reality show-inspired battles, this Everdene is a wealthy woman who finds herself humbled by the lives of the tenant farmers she becomes caught up in when she’s suddenly made their boss.Īlong the way, we meet one of literature’s most swoon-worthy men in the form of the on-the-nose named Gabriel Oak. Recently made into a gorgeous costume drama starring Carey Mulligan, it is Hardy’s least-depressing story and also presents the author’s most layered female protagonist in Bathsheba Everdene (yes, she’s so cool that Suzanne Collins borrowed her last name for Katniss). My favorite 19th century novel is absolutely Thomas Hardy’s Far From the Madding Crowd.

Far from the madding crowd book