Thomas Hardy's FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD, first published on this day in 1874, is the book that made Hardy famous.
“Bathsheba loved Troy in the way that only self-reliant women love when they abandon their self-reliance. When a strong woman recklessly throws away her strength she is worse than a weak woman who has never any strength to throw away. One source of her inadequacy is the novelty of the occasion. She has never had practice in making the best of such a condition. Weakness is doubly weak by being new.”
― from "Far from the Madding Crowd"
Bathsheba Everdene is a prosperous farmer in Hardy’s fictional Wessex county whose strong-minded independence and vanity lead to disastrous consequences for her and the three very different men who pursue her: the obsessed farmer William Boldwood, dashing and seductive Sergeant Frank Troy, and the devoted shepherd Gabriel Oak. Despite the violent ends of several of its major characters, Far from the Madding Crowd is the sunniest and least brooding of Hardy’s great novels, as Bathsheba and her suitors move through a beautifully realized late-nineteenth-century agrarian landscape that is still almost untouched by the industrial revolution and the encroachment of modern life. With an introduction by Michael Slater. READ an excerpt here:http://knopfdoubleday.com/…/far-from-the-mad…/9780679405764/
"It is difficult for a woman to define her feelings in language which is chiefly made by men to express theirs."
--from "Far from the Madding Crowd" (1874) by Thomas Hardy
“Well, what I mean is that I shouldn't mind being a bride at a wedding, if I could be one without having a husband.”
― from "Far from the Madding Crowd"
This story of a proud rural beauty and the three men who court her is the novel that first made Thomas Hardy famous. Despite the violent ends of several of its major characters, Far from the Madding Crowd is the sunniest and least brooding of Hardy’s great novels. The strong-minded Bathsheba Everdene—and the devoted shepherd, obsessed farmer, and dashing soldier who vie for her favor—move through a beautifully realized late nineteenth-century agrarian landscape, still almost untouched by the industrial revolution and the encroachment of modern life. READ an excerpt here:http://knopfdoubleday.com/…/753…/far-from-the-madding-crowd/
- 作者： Thomas Hardy/著
- 原文作者：Thomas Hardy
- 譯者：吳奚真
- 出版社：書林出版有限公司
- 出版日期：1999/
木訥深情的牧場主人包伍德，一廂情願的單戀，他的付出能否獲得回報？內斂穩定的牧羊人歐克，沉默忠誠的支持心上人，他能否獲得她的青睞？瀟灑不羈的曹伊中士，輕易獲得兩個女人的芳心，他是否真為愛情或婚姻的理想對象？獨立、美麗、富裕的女主角艾佛丁，身處這三個男人之間，將如何面對他們，並忠於自己的感情？ 十九世紀著名的英國詩人及小說家湯瑪斯．哈代，以客觀中立的筆調，描寫角色間的關係，並深入人物內心底層，剖析其優缺點，復以田園景色與鄉村生活穿插其間，不僅創造鮮活的維塞克斯(Wessex)風貌，更造就這部動人的長篇小說。
作/譯者簡介
Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) 英國小說家、詩人、劇作家。著有《德伯家的黛絲》、《無名的裘德》、《嘉德橋市長》等，均為經典名著，深受讀者歡迎。
吳奚真 (1917-1996) 瀋陽市人。曾任國立台灣師範大學英語系教授及國語教學中心主任近四十年。專精英國古典文學，尤長於狄更斯及哈代的作品。為著名翻譯家，1992年以《嘉德橋市長》洗鍊典雅之譯筆脫穎而出，榮獲國家文藝基金會第一屆翻譯獎之傑出譯作獎。
Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) 英國小說家、詩人、劇作家。著有《德伯家的黛絲》、《無名的裘德》、《嘉德橋市長》等，均為經典名著，深受讀者歡迎。
吳奚真 (1917-1996) 瀋陽市人。曾任國立台灣師範大學英語系教授及國語教學中心主任近四十年。專精英國古典文學，尤長於狄更斯及哈代的作品。為著名翻譯家，1992年以《嘉德橋市長》洗鍊典雅之譯筆脫穎而出，榮獲國家文藝基金會第一屆翻譯獎之傑出譯作獎。
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「哈代以女性為焦點，在層層的壓力強逼下，更顯追求幸福與基本尊嚴的可貴。
但不管是身分卑微的黛絲，《石匠玖德》中知性伶俐的新女性蘇姍，還是桀驁任性的貝莎芭，女性的愛情道路似乎同樣步步兇險。
哈代獨到之處，便是他對在大時代裡掙扎的男女，抱持一般的悲憫，還有他對自然肌理的認識，如土壤、礦物、化石、建築石材、植物等以身體觸感的方式呈現一個完整的物質與歷史的場域，只有仔細體會，才能慢慢了解哈代的作品之所以偉大且動人。」
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