Far from the Madding Crowd

Far from the madding crowd is a novel by Thomas Hardy. It is about love conflict between four characters.

The story starts with introduction of Gabriel oak. He was farmer. One night one beautiful young woman named Bathsheba saves him from suffocation. Oak proposes her for marriage which she refuses. Oak loses his livelihood when one of his dogs chases all his sheep off a cliff. He had lost all the things.

After wandering the countryside looking for a job, Oak arrives in a town called Weatherbury and gets himself a job as a shepherd. He finds that Bathsheba is his master who had inherited the farm after her uncle's recent death.

Meanwhile, a wealthy old farmer in the area named Boldwood decides that he'd like to marry Bathsheba, too. And she even gives Boldwood a half-promise to say yes, even though she doesn't love him. Suddenly Sergeant Troy comes in the town and Bathsheba falls in love with him. The two of them get married quickly, which breaks the hearts of both Boldwood and Gabriel Oak. Oak suspect he is not a good man. Troy used to be engaged to one of Bathsheba's servants Fanny Robin and he has left her (and their child) to die in the streets. When Bathsheba finds this out, her heart totally breaks.

Troy goes missing believed that he drowned in sea and died. But he was alive. When life turns out to be really hard without his wife's money, though, he comes skulking back to Weatherbury to claim his fortune. During his absence, Boldwood has pestered Bathsheba into marrying him. On the night Boldwood hopes to announce the engagement, though, Troy shows up to steal Bathsheba away for a second time.

Boldwood frustrated shoots Troy. Shortly afterwards, Boldwood turns himself in at a nearby police station. He's sentenced to be executed, but gets pardoned at the last minute because everyone thinks he's insane. Meanwhile, Gabriel Oak tells Bathsheba that he'll be leaving for America soon. She begs him to stay, and he agrees to… if the two of them can get married. She agrees and they get married shortly after.