Far from the Madding Crowd. by Hardy, Thomas - 1985: Introduction by Bel Mooney. Wood engravings by Peter Reddick.

1985. London, The Folio Society, 1985. 15 cm x 22.5 cm. XVII, 413 pages. Original Hardcover with slip case. Cloth-bound with gilt lettering. Excellent condition with only very minor signs of external wear. Includes the following chapters: Author's Preface, Description of Farmer Oak, A Girl on Horseback, Misstress and Men, A Morning Meeting, The Sheep-washing, On Casterbridge Highway, Troy's Romanticism, The Gurgoyle - its Doings, Adventures by the Shore, and Beauty in Loneliness. Far from the Madding Crowd (1874) is Thomas Hardy's fourth novel and the first to be set in Hardy's fictional county of Wessex in rural south west England. It deals in themes of love, honour and betrayal, against a backdrop of the seemingly idyllic, but often harsh, realities of a farming community in Victorian England. It describes the farmer Bathsheba Everdene, her life and relationships - especially with her lonely neighbour William Boldwood, the faithful shepherd Gabriel Oak, and the thriftless soldier Sergeant Troy. [Source: wikipedia.org].