Book description
Independent and spirited Bathsheba Everdene has come to Weatherbury to
take up her position as a farmer on the largest estate in the area. Her
bold presence draws three very different suitors: the gentleman-farmer
Boldwood, soldier-seducer Sergeant Troy and the devoted shepherd Gabriel
Oak. Each, in contrasting ways, unsettles her decisions and complicates
her life, and tragedy ensues, threatening the stability of the whole
community. The first of his works set in Wessex, Hardy's novel of
swiftpassion and slow courtship is imbued with his evocative
descriptions of rural life and landscapes, and with unflinching honesty
about sexual relationships.
Thomas Hardy was born in 1840 and wrote both poetry and novels,
including The Mayor of Casterbridge, Tess of the D'Urbervilles and
Jude the Obscure. He died in 1928.
Rosemarie Morgan teaches in the English department at Yale
University.
Shannon Russell holds a post doctoral Fellowship specializing in
nineteenth- and twentieth-century literature at Oxford.
