Far From the Madding Crowd
by Thomas Hardy
1874/ 500 or so pages
rating: 10 / classic – 19th century England

I’ve read several of Hardy’s novels and enjoy them quite a lot. This is his best according to many I only finally got  to it.  The first e-book edition I got was pathetic, no paragraph breaks except at the chapters and many typos. I got it because it was supposed to be annotated but it’s not. I returned it,  got a better (still cheap) version and was quite happy.  I tell you this only as a precaution – all formats are not created equal.

Anyway, a young but promising sheep farmer named Gabriel Oak – I suppose he’s an earthly angel – falls in love with Bathsheba Everdene, a beautiful young neighbor who is the niece of a very large farmer >>>>MORE>>>>