Far From the Madding Crowd

Thomas Hardy

These delectable and collectible editions are bound in high-quality colorful, and tactile cloth with foil stamped into the design. They are part of Penguin’s beautiful hardback Clothbound Classics series, which the award-winning Coralie Bickford-Smith designed. Bathsheba Everdene, a strong-willed and independent woman, has relocated to Weatherbury in order to take up a position as a farmer on the largest estate in the neighborhood. Her bold presence attracts three suitors who couldn’t be more dissimilar to one another: the gentleman-farmer Boldwood, the soldier and seducer Sergeant Troy, and the devoted shepherd Gabriel Oak. Each in their unique way disturbs her decisions and makes her life more difficult, ultimately resulting in a tragedy that jeopardizes the security of the entire community. Hardy’s novel’s swift passion and slow courtship are the first of his works to be set in Wessex. It is imbued with his evocative descriptions of rural life and landscapes and unflinching honesty about sexual relationships.