Books with title Far From the Madding Crowd

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work.This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

HarperCollins UK Audio Classics presents abridged and unabridged readings of the world's favorite literary masterpieces. Among the distinguished readers are Christopher Lee, Derek Jacobi, Simon Callow, Linus Roache, Elizabeth McGovern, Terry Jones, Peter Firth, and Rufus Sewell. Each package of cassettes in the Audio Classics series is beautifully packaged and shrink-wrapped.

HarperCollins UK Audio Classics presents abridged and unabridged readings of the world's favorite literary masterpieces. Among the distinguished readers are Christopher Lee, Derek Jacobi, Simon Callow, Linus Roache, Elizabeth McGovern, Terry Jones, Peter Firth, and Rufus Sewell. Each package of cassettes in the Audio Classics series is beautifully packaged and shrink-wrapped.

In reprinting this story for a new edition I am reminded that it was in the chapters of "Far from the Madding Crowd," as they appeared month by month in a popular magazine, that I first ventured to adopt the word "Wessex" from the pages of early English history, and give it a fictitious significance as the existing name of the district once included in that extinct kingdom. The series of novels I projected being mainly of the kind called local, they seemed to require a territorial definition of some sort to lend unity to their scene. Finding that the area of a single county did not afford a canvas large enough for this purpose, and that there were objections to an invented name, I disinterred the old one. The press and the public were kind enough to welcome the fanciful plan, and willingly joined me in the anachronism of imagining a Wessex population living under Queen Victoria;—a modern Wessex of railways, the penny post, mowing and reaping machines, union workhouses, lucifer matches, labourers who could read and write, and National school children. But I believe I am correct in stating that, until the existence of this contemporaneous Wessex was announced in the present story, in 1874, it had never been heard of, and that the expression, "a Wessex peasant," or "a Wessex custom," would theretofore have been taken to refer to nothing later in date than the Norman Conquest. I did not anticipate that this application of the word to a modern use would extend outside the chapters of my own chronicles. But the name was soon taken up elsewhere as a local designation. The first to do so was the now defunct Examiner, which, in the impression bearing date July 15, 1876, entitled one of its articles "The Wessex Labourer," the article turning out to be no dissertation on farming during the Heptarchy, but on the modern peasant of the south-west counties, and his presentation in these stories. Since then the appellation which I had thought to reserve to the horizons and landscapes of a merely realistic dream-country, has become more and more popular as a practical definition; and the dream-country has, by degrees, solidified into a utilitarian region which people can go to, take a house in, and write to the papers from. But I ask all good and gentle readers to be so kind as to forget this, and to refuse steadfastly to believe that there are any inhabitants of a Victorian Wessex outside the pages of this and the companion volumes in which they were first discovered.

Though most ebooks are simple conversions of paper books, “The eNotated Far from the Madding Crowd" is a completely new approach that takes advantage of the potential ebook technology offers to extend and enrich Thomas Hardy’s writing in a way that’s convenient to use while still unobtrusive to the reader.First published by Hardy in 1874, this edition of "Madding Crowd" includes a Hardy biography, a chronology of his life, a timeline of major events, 63 illustrations, and eNotations that extend Hardy’s writing by providing a new layer of information behind the text the reader can access before, during, and after each chapter.For instance, in Chapter 2, when Hardy mentions a shepherd's hut, Barbour’s eNotation tells us “These huts were mounted on wheels and drawn from pasture to pasture in order that the shepherd might stay close to his flock. They were used particularly at lambing time, but some shepherds stayed with the flock year round” and he adds an illustration of a shepherd's hut.Hardy’s “Far from the Madding Crowd” is perhaps Hardy’s positive Wessex novel - a story of how a single woman struggles to maintain her independence in a patriarcal world - but it is filled with 19th century agricultural terms, geographical and literary references, and Wessex idioms that may be lost to the modern reader. Howard Barbour, born not far from Hardy’s Wessex, grew up listening to stories of late 19th century rural life told by a disappearing generation, and then as a young man worked in and studied agriculture just as the last vestiges of age-old practices were being swept away by the new. In this eNotated edition of “Far from the Madding Crowd” Barbour provides the background and explanations readers need to thoroughly understand, appreciate, and enjoy Hardy’s classic by adding hundreds of electronic annotations linked to words and phrases in Hardy’s original text.If you are going to read “Madding Crowd” for the first time - or return to this wonderful story after some years - you will best enjoy and most throughly understand “Madding Crowd” with this unique eNotated edition.

Capricious and handsome Bathsheba Everdene, the new young mistress of the Upper Farm, is a disquieting presence in the village of Weatherbury. Through her relationships with three suitors--the shepherd Gabriel Oak, the yeoman farmer Boldwood, and dashing Sergeant Troy--she discovers the difference between seduction and courtship; between infatuation and romance carved from "hard prosaic reality." 4 cassettes.

How is this book unique? 15 Illustrations are included Short Biography is also includedOriginal & Unabridged EditionTablet and e-reader formattedBest fiction books of all timeOne of the best books to readClassic historical fiction booksBestselling FictionFar from the Madding Crowd (1874) is Thomas Hardy's fourth novel and his first major literary success. It originally appeared anonymously as a monthly serial in Cornhill Magazine, where it gained a wide readership. Critical notices were plentiful and mostly positive. Hardy revised the text extensively for the 1895 edition and made further changes for the 1901 edition.