Far From The Madding Crowd
This is the story of Bethsheba and Gabriel Oak. Gabriel falls in love with Bethsheba and tells her of his feelings. But Bethsheba thinks that Gabriel is not suited for her and leaves him. But Gabriel ends up working on Bethsheba's farm. He decides to carry on without any other show of love towards her. Meanwhile Bethsheba falls in love with a soldier and marries him. It turns out that her husband has a questionable character and she is saddened to know a... Jude the Obscure
This story focuses on the main character Jude Fawley and his hopes and aspirations to become a scholar. Sadly, due to his social class, he is rejected by the universities and must become a common worker. Jude unwisely marries a rather audacious and shameless woman whom he later splits with. After their seperation, Jude moves away and falls in love with his cousin Sue. After Sue learns that Jude is married, she becomes angry and marries a man that she ... Tess of the D'Urbervilles
The Durbeyfields find out that they are of an ancient but extinct royal lineage of the D'Urbervilles. In an attempt to "claim kin", they send Tess to the Tantridge mansion where she meets Alec D'Urberville. Because Tess has was the cause the death of her family's horse, she feels obligated to earn money to buy a new on. She works at Tantridge but after only a few months there Alec leads her into the Chase, an ancient forest, and rapes her.
Tess retur... The Mayor of Casterbridge
. Michael Henchard is traveling with his wife, Susan, looking for work. One day however Henchard gets drunk and sells his infant daughter and wife for 5 guineas to a sailor named Newson. After this episode, Henchard vows to never drink again and 18 years later he is the Mayor of Casterbridge.
Susan and Elizabeth-Jane (his daughter) return to Casterbridge as Newson is now dead. The parents meet and decide to remarry swiftly not telling Elizabeth-Jane ...
Hardy booklist
The Return of the Native
The tragic story of a handful of men and women who live on an isolated Heath in Victorian England. Love triangles ensue between the frustrated Eustacia Vye, discontent Damon Wildeve, naive Thomasin Yeobright, intelligent Clym Yeobright, possessive Mrs. Yeobright, and the shrewd Diggory Venn. Beautiful descriptions of the heathland (which is itself a central "character") by Hardy who carries this novel to a poetic and somewhat depressing close. ... The Trumpet Major
This book is set during the Napoleonic wars and the quiet young man of the title is one of three suitors to Anne Garland a young woman who lives with her mother. As always Hardy sets his novel in the area he calls Wessex. While the plot is set around Anne and the men wooing her, the strength of the story is in the writing style, the description of the country side and the culture of the time as England awaits the invasion from France. ...
