Far from the Madding CrowdBy: Thomas Hardy '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