Far from the Madding Crowd
Thomas Hardy
Oxford Bookworms LibraryLevel 5
A level 5 Oxford Bookworms Library graded reader. Retold for Learners of English by Clare West.
Bathsheba Everdene is young, proud, and beautiful. She is an independent woman and can marry any man she chooses – if she chooses. In fact, she likes her independence, and she likes fighting her own battles in a man’s world.
But it is never wise to ignore the power of love. There are three men who would very much like to marry Bathsheba. When she falls in love with one of them, she soon wishes she had kept her independence. She learns that love brings misery, pain, and violent passions that can destroy lives…
Thomas Hardy
Far from the Madding Crowd
FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD
First published in 1874, this novel was an immediate bestseller. The story takes place in the fields and farms of the quiet English countryside, when harvests were gathered by hand, when carts were pulled by horses, and when people’s lives followed the pattern of the changing seasons.
That quiet rural world has long since gone, of course, but the passions that rule people’s lives have not changed. Within the everlasting circle of springtime and harvest, love burns as fiercely, as uncontrollably, as ever.
The beautiful Bathsheba Everdene has her own farm and does not need to marry. But she cannot fight off love for ever. There is the shepherd, Gabriel Oak, whose love for Bathsheba is quiet and steady. There is Farmer Boldwood, a serious, middle-aged man, who has never been in love before. And there is Sergeant Troy, a handsome young soldier in his bright red coat … Bathsheba is self-confident and independent, but she has much to learn about the violent passions of love.
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ISBN 978 0 19 479223 3
A complete recording of this Bookworms edition of Far From The Madding Crowd is available on audio CD ISBN 978 0 19 479204 2
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Illustrated by: Ron Tiner
Word count (main text): 24,490 words
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e-Book ISBN 978 0 19 478634 8
e-Book first published 2012
PEOPLE IN THIS STORY
Bathsheba Everdene
Mrs Hurst, her aunt
Liddy, Bathsheba’s maid
Maryann, the cleaning-woman in Bathsheba’s house
Benjy Pennyways, Bathsheba’s farm manager
Gabri