How to Read Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy (Introductory Lecture) (Patreon)

It’s time to begin our appreciation of Thomas Hardy's deeply poetic, pastoral masterpiece: Far from the Madding Crowd.

Our reading will prompt us to think about the natural world, the poetic tradition, tragedy vs comedy, men and women, love and lust, class, honour, independence, pride, fate, redemption, and much more.

We will meet some incredible characters during this exploration of the human condition and, in doing so, ultimately meet ourselves. I'm staying away from spoilers or significant plot details in this discussion because the experience of Hardy's lyrical narrative unfolding for the first time is intensely special.

Today we’re discussing how best to break into this beautifully profound work and bring ourselves fully to Far from the Madding Crowd.

Video Timestamps:

0:00 why I love Thomas Hardy

2:00 how to read Far from the Madding Crowd

3:00 what is this story about?

5:30 allusions in great literature

6:30 where does the title come from?

7:30 Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard

8:30 what is an elegy in poetry?

10:00 poetry reading assignment for Hardy

11:30 appreciating Thomas Gray’s poem

13:00 Thomas Hardy as poet-novelist

14:00 influence of impressionism on Hardy

15:00 how do we define great literature?

15:30 artistic love languages of writers

16:30 the rise of the novel reading public

17:30 how the Victorians read fiction

18:00 novel as popular entertainment

19:00 a turning point in Hardy’s career

20:00 poetic tradition in English literature

21:00 Shakespeare, Milton, Wordsworth

22:00 two broad religious poetic traditions

23:00 two traditions of great novels

24:00 Thomas Hardy as tragic novelist

25:00 my first Thomas Hardy novel

26:00 how Hardy wrote this novel

27:00 Shakespeare & Milton in Hardy

28:00 influence of William Wordsworth

28:30 an exciting reading experiment

29:00 aesthetic manifesto of Lyrical Ballads

30:30 Romantic influence on Thomas Hardy

31:30 Hardy takes us into the heart of nature

32:00 the sense of a lost idyllic past

33:00 industrialisation & class anxiety

34:30 appreciating a great Wordsworth poem

35:30 my theory on the mythology of Eden

36:00 the suffering of Hardy’s characters

38:00 Romantic vs Darwinian nature

39:00 the many meanings of romance

40:30 tension of romance vs realism

41:00 complex women characters

42:00 Thomas Hardy’s relationships

42:30 how Victorians named characters

43:30 the protagonists in this novel

44:00 the character of Gabriel Oak

45:30 the character of Bathsheba Everdene

48:00 Sergeant Troy & Farmer Boldwood

49:00 Thomas Hardy’s place names

50:00 on flat vs round characters

51:00 sublime subtlety in characterisation

52:30 Victorian critics vs Thomas Hardy

54:00 Victorian male conceptions of women

55:00 ‘they can’t make up their minds’

57:00 learning from vicarious experience

58:30 Hardy defies gender conventions

1:01:00 when Gabriel proposes to Bathsheba

1:02:00 ‘I want somebody to tame me’

1:03:00 Hardy’s critique of marriage

1:04:00 entering the age of the New Woman

1:05:00 were the Victorians really repressed?

1:07:00 what we want vs what we need

1:08:00 the tragic war between the sexes

1:09:00 from Victorianism to Modernism

1:10:00 Virginia Woolf tribute for Hardy

1:12:00 Hardy as greatest tragic novelist

1:15:00 man up against the natural world

1:16:00 living in Thomas Hardy’s Wessex

1:18:30 appreciating my favourite passage

1:21:30 Thomas Hardy lecture series

1:24:00 embracing first reading experience

1:25:00 chapter reading assignments

1:26:00 some reading questions for you

Resources:

• Recommended Edition: I adore the hardback Everyman's Library editions of Thomas Hardy's novels. But I also love the Oxford World's Classics paperbacks, which are perfect for dog-earing, scribbling all over, and taking outside with you.

• Film Appreciation: For a contemporary film adaption of this novel, you might like to check out the 2015 film starring the wonderful Carey Mulligan as Bathsheba Everdene and directed by Thomas Vinterberg. You can enjoy the trailer here. There is also the 1967 film starring Julie Christie and directed by John Schlesinger (trailer here). I would personally recommend reading the novel first and then rewarding yourself with a film viewing when you finish it. As you read through, ask yourself: how would you adapt the story to the big screen?

• TV & Radio: In addition to the film versions above, you may also be interested in checking out the 1998 TV adaptation of this phenomenal novel, starring Paloma Baez. Let us know which adaptation you find yourself drawn to and what you make of them. For lovers of audio drama, you also have the option of the three-part BBC Radio 4 Classic Serial adaptation here.

• Biography: Claire Tomalin is one of my favourite contemporary biographers. She has put together superb biographies for the likes of Charles Dickens, Jane Austen, and Samuel Pepys. And her biography for Thomas Hardy is superb. You can listen to her discussing her love of Hardy, and her biography, on BBC Radio 4 here.

• Short Stories: If you would like to supplement your reading with some tremendous short stories, then I highly recommend picking up Thomas Hardy's collection Life's Little Ironies. You might find it interesting to start with 'On the Western Circuit' and 'The Fiddler of the Reels.'

• Poetry Appreciation: Penguin Clothbound have published a gorgeous volume of Thomas Hardy's Wessex Poems and Other Verses. The same series also have a wonderful edition of Wordsworth and Coleridge's Lyrical Ballads. Whilst we're talking poetry, it would be rewarding to spend some time with Thomas Gray's 'Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard' here.

• Documentary: The wonderful Gyles Brandreth has a documentary series in which he walks in the footsteps of some of the greatest English writers (Dickens, Austen, the Brontë sisters) and visits the parts of Britain that inspired their works. Treat yourself to his episode on Thomas Hardy here.

Reading Assignment:

Our next discussion will take us up to and including chapters 1-12 of Far from the Madding Crowd, which comprised the first volume of the novel for the original readers. So start making your way into the work, meeting the characters, and noting down any themes, ideas, or passages that personally resonate with you.

Questions for You:

1) What is your current relationship with Thomas Hardy? Is this your first reading or a rereading of this great book?

2) What are you hoping to get out of your deep reading of Far from the Madding Crowd?

3) What themes from your wider reading, and your life, would you like to pull into this work?

Happy reading, everybody!