Original Publication Date: 1874
Genre: English, British, rural, classic
Topics: farm life 19th century
Review by : Liz Inskip-Paulk (www.ravingreader.wordpress.com)
Really enjoyed this Hardy title, and found that as the book
progressed, it became harder and harder to put down and go and do “real life”
things. I ended up doing a marathon read last night and was really immersed
into Wessex and the lives of the villagers that Hardy had conjured up.
What I was most interested in this read was the difference
in vocabulary and references that Hardy uses in his writing. It’s been a while
since I have needed to do a “New Words to Me” blog post, but reading Hardy
helped me to add a lot of new words to that list, along with loads of
references to biblical and Greek/Roman myths.
So – why is it that more recent/modern writers tend to stick
to the familiar vocabulary and images when other older ones didn’t? Yes, some
modern writers do play a lot of with language (John Banville comes to mind),
but generally speaking, there is not the range of vocabulary in more modern
publications. (Perhaps it’s just the ones that I’ve been reading?)
Is it because the older (read: Victorian) writers wore their
learning lightly and made these literary references assuming that the reader
would know them? Or were these older writers being elitist and showing off
their education to their readers? Would the average reader at the time of Hardy
know his references to Ixion’s punishment and when “the sailors invoked the
lost Hylas on the Mysian shore”? Or were his readers just as puzzled as I was
(and hitting the books to find out more)?
Another curious point is the link between the main female
character -- Bathsheba Everdene -- and the more current heroic character of
Katniss Everdeen in “The Hunger Games”. I had wondered if there was a
connection between the two, and in further research, it seems that HG author
Suzanne Collins did name Katniss as a homage to the Bathsheba character – both
have strong independent characters that don’t always go down well in the
society in which they live, both have similar romantic issues (Katniss/Peter (I
think), and Bathsheba/Gabriel)… I wonder how many teen readers know that as the
reference? Probably not, I would think, which is a shame as Hardy is a great
read.
Speaking of literary influences, now I am curious to re-read
Posy Simmonds’ graphic novel Tamara Drew which heavily references Far From the
Madding Crowd. When I first read the Simmonds’ work, I hadn’t read this
particular Hardy title so probably ended up missing a ton of references. I’m
interested now to go back and re-read the graphic novel and see the parallels
between them.
I’m now thinking of finding the 1967 movie adaptation of
Far… as that seems to have the best reviews. (Although I am curious to see
David Nicholl’s 2013 BBC adaptation as well. Perhaps I can catch some of that
when I visit UK later this fall.)
It’s a shame that more people don’t read more Hardy – I
think they think of him as writer of tragedy and sadness, but if you read his
Wessex books, they are pretty light-hearted and funny at times. I’d almost
classify Hardy as a rural more down-to-earth Jane Austen in some ways, but
people tend to get stuck on the disastrous story of Tess and get scared off.
They’re missing out.
Download Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy at Project Gutenberg|Librivox|
