FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD. “Penguin English Lib

'I cannot allow any man to - to criticise my private conduct!' she exclaimed. 'Nor will I for a minute'. Bathsheba Everdene, independent and uncompromising, comes to a small rural community to take up a position as a farmer, where her confident presence draws three very different suitors: the gentleman-farmer Boldwood, the seducer Sergeant Troy and devoted shepherd Gabriel Oak. As each man complicates her life, Bathsheba becomes an object of superstition, judgement and betrayal. Thomas Hardy's 1874 novel of swift passion and slow courtship was radical for its honest portrayal of sexual relationships, and for showing the precarious position of a woman in a man's world.