Book Review of Far from the Ma
This novel is mainly about the mutual entanglement of love among three men and a charming girl.
The honest and industrious farmer Oak fell in love with the beautiful girl Bathsheba at first sight.He expressed his love but was turned down.Because of a big fire,fate brought penniless Oak to farm of Bathsheba.From then on,Oak worked for Bathsheba as a shephard,hiding his love in mind for more than ten years.
Bathsheba was pride and couldn’t accept the ignorance of Blodwood,so on Valentine’s Day,she presented him a card writing ambiguous word.It was the card that stumilated Blodwood’s deep love with Bathsheba.
When Blodwood and Bathsheba developed closer relationship gradually,the heroine met the man at a feast night who would bring enormous sadness in her future life.It was the soldier Troy,handsome and strong,having good command of romantic tricks to attract girls.Despite the counsel of Oak,Bathsheba married Troy.
The marriage of Troy and Bathsheba wasn’t a happy one.The girl who had gone with a sodier came back and announced Troy’s evildoing of treating girls’ love.Troy went away and was said drowned.Blodwood felt hopeful again and continued to court Bathsheba.
When Blodwood nearly succeeded,Troy turned up once again,crushing the hope of Blodwood.Blodwood was so furious that he killed Troy immediately with his gun.As a result,Troy was dead and Blodwood was sentenced to life imprisonment,which distressed Bathsheba greatly.Finally,she realized Oak was the one who were always caring for her and ready to protect her. Oak,having helped and loved Bathsheba for more than ten years,eventually married Bathsheba.
Far from the Madding Crowd is the first successful novel of Thomas Hardy,one of the greatest novelists of Britain. Thomas Hardy’s works are always set in Britain and this book is not an exception.This story describes a beautiful village full of Britain characteristics and presents the thoughts and moral code of British people,drawing a colourful picture about every aspect of Britain in readers’ mind.In addition, Thomas Hardy’s novels usually contain tragic sense,expressing the his opinion about life and society.Dislike his other great novels,such as Tess of the D’Urbervilles and Jude the obscure ,Far from the Madding Crowd has an ending in which the two chief characters finally stayed together.It seems to be an happy ending,but it’s apparent that Bathsheba married Oak just for the seek of being safe and sound instead of love.In reality,the girl was so heart-broken that she lost her charming smile.In other words,the story also contains tragic color, but the sadness is reduced by the beautiful scene and peaceful lifestyle of the village “far from the madding crowd”.
Though there are many words and expressions in the novel that are elusive to an unprofessional learner of English,the picturesque scenery and dwellers’leisure life can be sensed from the vivid and exquisite description.For example, in chapter 2 ,there is a paragraph about the senery,“The hill was covered on its northern side by an ancient and decaying plantation of beeches, whose upper verge formed a line over the crest, fringing its arched curve against the sly, like a mane.” The author is good at describing the scenery of countryside.By Using different kinds of verbs and rhetorical devices,the author describe a peaceful and picturesque scenery.Such examples can be seen in the novel every where.Moreover,the author also has great ability of innovative writing and convey profound meaning through concise sentences.Take an example of a description of dawn at chapter 34, “He lingered and lingered on, till there was no difference between the eastern and western expanses of sky, and the timid hares began to limp courageously round the dim hillocks.” The author describes the dawn as "no difference between the expanses of sky".The writing angle is novel and vividly describes the elapse of time within several words, making the beautiful scene and the anxiety of Oak more sensuous.The hare's appearance also adds to the vitality.Last but not the least,The description of the characters are also brilliant.Because of the author’s distinctive writing style,their feeling can move readers a lot.For instant,at chapter 41,the author decribes Bathsheba’s feeling“She flushed in pain and surprise, and some words escaped her before she had thought whether or not it was wise to utter them.”To emphasize Bathsheba is flushed,the author says that it was the words "escape" her rather than she spoke the words.The sentence also reflects the innovation of writing.Bathsheba’s anxiety is thoroughly presented.It’s not difficult to conclude that the special writing style and the distinguished writing skill make the novel be well remembered.
The plot of the novel is easy to understand but sometimes unexpected. The plot passed off with fluctuation and the story goes step by step.There is much foreshadowing of all the events and the truth,such as the real nature of Troy,Blodwood committing murder of Troy and so on.All of the tragic plots brings great shock and sadness to both characters in the novel and the readers.The story expresses the author’s main theme of most of his works that things are always changing,sometime in a sudden.Aside from the deep emotion about life,the book also contains profound thinking of love,moral,custom,society and so on. For example,at the beginning of the book,the auther says,“Or, to state his character as it stood in the scale of public opinion, when his friends and critics were in tantrums, he was considered rather a bad man; when they were pleased, he was rather a good man.” It is an interesting idea-a person's moral image can be based on the emotion of others.It present the concept of the British people or even people around the world and set readers thinking.
Far from the Madding Crowd is great and meaningful.It not only brings readers into deep thoughts but also opens up a peaceful area of people’s mind to enjoy silent reading,enabling them to escape from the madding crowd.It was the experience of seeing the scenery in the book and feeling as the characters feeling makes reading fascinating.Finally,present a famous peom of the book which is also fascinating,
“Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife;
Their sober wishes never learn'd to stray;
Along the cool sequester'd vale of life;
They kept the noiseless tenor of their way.”
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