Thomas Hardy’s impassioned novel of courtship in rural life

In Thomas Hardy’s first major literary success independent and spirited Bathsheba Everdene has come to Weatherbury to take up her position as a farmer on the largest estate in the area. Her bold presence draws three very different suitors the gentleman-farmer Boldwood the soldier-seducer Sergeant Troy and the devoted shepherd Gabriel Oak. Each in contrasting ways unsettles her decisions and complicates her life and tragedy ensues threatening the stability of the whole community. One of his first works set in the semi-fictional region of Wessex Hardy’s novel of swift passion and slow courtship is imbued with his evocative descriptions of rural life and landscapes and with unflinching honesty about sexual relationships.

This edition based on Hardy’s original 1874 manuscript is the complete novel he never saw published and restores its full candor and innovation. Rosemarie Morgan’s introduction discusses the history of its publication as well as the biblical and classical allusions that permeate the novel.

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'The first of Hardy's great novels, and the first to sound the tragic note for which his best fiction is remembered' Margaret Drabble

Thomas Hardy's novel of swift passion and slow courtship is imbued with evocative descriptions of rural life, and with unflinching honesty about sexual relationships. Its heroine, Bathsheba Everdene, takes up her position as a farmer on a large estate, where her confident presence draws three very different suitors: the gentleman-farmer Boldwood, the soldier-seducer Sergeant Troy and the devoted shepherd Gabriel Oak. Each, in contrasting ways, unsettles her decisions and complicates her life, and when tragedy ensues, the stability of the whole community is threatened.

Edited with an Introduction and notes by ROSEMARIE MORGAN with SHANNON RUSSELL

Hardy Thomas