Audiobooks General Fiction Far from the Madding Crowd
Far from the Madding Crowd

Far from the Madding Crowd

by Thomas HARDY (1840 - 1928)

Far from the Madding Crowd (1874) is Thomas Hardy's fourth novel and offers in ample measure the details of English rural life that Hardy so relished. Hardy's growing taste for tragedy is also evident in the novel. It first appeared, anonymously, as a monthly magazine serial, where it gained a wide readership and critical acclaim. According to Virginia Woolf, "The subject was right; the method was right; the poet and the countryman, the sensual man, the sombre reflective man, the man of learning, all enlisted to produce a book which . . . must hold its place among the great English novels." The book is often regarded as an early piece of feminist literature, since it features an independent woman with the courage to defy convention by running a farm herself. Although Bathsheba's passionate nature leads her into serious errors of judgment, Hardy endows her with sufficient resilience, intelligence, and good luck to overcome her youthful folly.


01 - Description of Farmer Oak--An Incident

02 - Night--The Flock--An Interior--Another Interior

03 - A Girl on Horseback--Conversation

04 - Gabriel's Resolve--The Visit--The Mistake

05 - Departure of Bathsheba--A Pastoral Tragedy

06 - The Fair--The Journey--The Fire

07 - Recognition--A Timid Girl

08 - The Malthouse--The Chat--News

09 - The Homestead--A Visitor--Half-Confidences

10 - Mistress and Men

11 - Outside the Barracks--Snow--A Meeting

12 - Farmers--A Rule--An Exception

13 - Sortes Sanctorum--The Valentine

14 - Effect of the Letter--Sunrise

15 - A Morning Meeting--The Letter Again

16 - All Saints' and All Souls'

17 - In the Market-Place

18 - Boldwood in Meditation--Regret

19 - The Sheep-Washing--The Offer

20 - Perplexity--Grinding the Shears--A Quarrel

21 - Troubles in the Fold--A Message

22 - The Great Barn and the Sheep-Shearers

23 - Eventide--A Second Declaration

24 - The Same Night--The Fir Plantation

25 - The New Acquaintance Described

26 - Scene on the Verge of the Hay-Mead

27 - Hiving the Bees

28 - The Hollow Amid the Ferns

29 - Particulars of a Twilight Walk

30 - Hot Cheeks and Tearful Eyes

31 - Blame--Fury

32 - Night--Horses Tramping

33 - In the Sun--A Harbinger

34 - Home Again--A Trickster

35 - At an Upper Window

36 - Wealth in Jeopardy--The Revel

37 - The Storm--The Two Together

38 - Rain--One Solitary Meets Another

39 - Coming Home--A Cry

40 - On Casterbridge Highway

41 - Suspicion--Fanny Is Sent For

42 - Joseph and His Burden--Buck's Head

43 - Fanny's Revenge

44 - Under a Tree--Reaction

45 - Troy's Romanticism

46 - The Gurgoyle: Its Doings

47 - Adventures by the Shore

48 - Doubts Arise--Doubts Linger

49 - Oak's Advancement--A Great Hope

50 - The Sheep Fair--Troy Touches His Wife's Hand

51 - Bathsheba Talks with Her Outrider

52 - Converging Courses

53 - Concurritur--Horae Momento

54 - After the Shock

55 - The March Following--"Bathsheba Boldwood"

56 - Beauty in Loneliness--After All

57 - A Foggy Night and Morning--Conclusion