Far from the Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy

I may be the odd one out, but I really liked Far From the Madding Crowd. I liked the sheep, I liked the character of Gabriel Oak and above all, I loved Thomas Hardys descriptions of the landscapes and the weather. Since I know that a lot of people don´t like his writing style, I´m very pleased by the fact that Hardy seems like an author that I enjoy reading.

 

I have to admit, though, I´m not the biggest fan of the heroine, Bathsheba. She is selfish, condescending, at times cruel, vain and, which is my biggest complaint, utterly stupid. I didn´t feel sorry for her once and during the whole Valentine cards fiasco I just wanted to punch her in the face. How she can have three suitors in the first place is beyond me and the falling in love of Gabriel in the beginning was extremely poorly developed. Why is he falling in love with her? Right, it must have been her looks, because they didn´t talk that much to each other.

 

And I still have the same problem with the book as I had with the Carey Mulligan movie way back then:

 

Gabriel proposes to Bathsheba on page 20 or there about. And after 400 pages of drama and stupidity on behalf of Bathsheba, she ends up with the guy, who proposed to her in the first place. Yeah, she is a daft cow.

(show spoiler)