I shall do one thing in this life  one thing certain  that is, love you, and long for you, and keep wanting you till I die

Independent and spirited, Bathsheba Everdene owns the hearts of three men. Striving to win her love in different ways, their relationships with Bathsheba complicate her life in bucolic Wessex  and cast shadows over their own. With the morals and expectations of rural society weighing heavily upon her, Bathsheba experiences the torture of unrequited love and betrayal, and discovers how random acts of chance and tragedy can dramatically alter lifes course.

The first of Hardys novels to become a major literary success, Far from the Madding Crowd explores what it means to live and to love.