Far From the Madding Crowd
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Far From the Madding Crowd
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Narrated by:
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Jamie Parker
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By:
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Thomas Hardy
About this listen
In a remote corner of early Victorian England, where traditional practices remain untouched by time, Bathsheba Everdene stands out as a beacon of female independence and self-reliance. However, when confronted with three suitors, among them the dashing Sergeant Troy, she shows a reckless capriciousness that threatens the stability of the whole community. Published in 1874, and an immediate best seller, Far From the Madding Crowd established Thomas Hardy as one of Britain's foremost novelists.
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-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 781
When John Durbeyfield discovers a family connection to the ancient Norman family, the D'Urbervilles, the fate of daughter Tess is transformed. Sent by her ambitious parents to visit her wealthy D'Urberville cousins, Tess attracts the attention of the unscrupulous Alec. Seduced and discarded by him and alone in the world, she finds work as a milkmaid and the love of Angel Clare. Yet his love cannot accept the truth about Tess's past.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Peter Firth gets this book
- By Claire on 04-11-10
By: Thomas Hardy
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Far from the Madding Crowd
- By: Thomas Hardy
- Narrated by: Steven Green
- Length: 15 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 6
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 5
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 5
"Far from the Madding Crowd" (1874) is the first novel set in Hardy's fictional county of Wessex in rural southwest England. It deals with the themes of love, honor 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 neighbor William Boldwood, the faithful shepherd Gabriel Oak, and the thriftless soldier Sergeant Troy. The novel was listed at number 48 on the BBC's survey The Big Read in 2003.
By: Thomas Hardy
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Far from the Madding Crowd (AmazonClassics Edition)
- By: Thomas Hardy
- Narrated by: Nick Sandys
- Length: 14 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 60
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 51
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 51
In rural Victorian England, the willful Bathsheba Everdene is courted by three men: her repressed neighbor, a devoted shepherd, and a thriftless soldier. They cross and clash again and again in tragedy, grief, betrayal, misguided affections, and the follies of romantic love. Though far from the fury of the city, the drama they engender is equal to the whole of the universe in madness and passion.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Thomas Hardy’s best!
- By jdd on 10-26-19
By: Thomas Hardy
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Far from the Madding Crowd
- By: Thomas Hardy
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 13 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 194
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 155
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 156
Gabriel Oak is only one of three suitors for the hand of the beautiful and spirited Bathsheba Everdene. He must compete with the dashing young soldier Sergeant Troy and the respectable, middle-aged Farmer Boldwood. And while their fates depend upon the choice Bathsheba makes, she discovers the terrible consequences of an inconstant heart.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Another Classic!
- By 🌸DARA on 06-07-13
By: Thomas Hardy
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Tess of the d'Urbervilles
- By: Thomas Hardy
- Narrated by: Davina Porter
- Length: 17 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 2,200
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 2,011
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 2,011
Tess Durbeyfield has become one of the most famous female protagonists in 19th-century British literature. Betrayed by the two men in her life - Alec D’Urberville, her seducer/rapist and father of her fated child; and Angel, her intellectual and pious husband - Tess takes justice, and her own destiny, into her delicate hands. In telling her desperate and passionate story, Hardy brings Tess to life with an extraordinary vividness that makes her live in the heart of the reader long after the novel is concluded.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Davina Porter Does It Again!
- By misaki on 06-15-15
By: Thomas Hardy
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Jude the Obscure
- By: Thomas Hardy
- Narrated by: Neville Jason
- Length: 17 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 132
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 114
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Story4 out of 5 stars 114
Sexually innocent Jude Fawley is trapped into marriage by seductive Arabella Donn, but their union is an unhappy one and Arabella leaves him. Jude's welcome freedom allows him to pursue his obsession with his pretty cousin Sue Bridehead, a brilliant, charismatic free-thinker who would be his ideal soul-mate if not for her aversion to physical love. When Jude and Sue decide to lead their lives outside marriage they bring down on themselves all the force of a repressive society.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Left reeling
- By Tad Davis on 03-03-14
By: Thomas Hardy
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The Mayor of Casterbridge
- By: Thomas Hardy
- Narrated by: Tony Britton
- Length: 13 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 334
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 299
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 297
This audiobook is about the rise and fall of Michael Henchard. While out-of-work he gets drunk at a fair and impulsively sells his wife and baby for five guineas to a sailor. Eighteen years later he is reunited with his wife and daughter, who discover that he has gained wealth and respect and is now the most prominent man in Casterbridge. Though he attempts to make amends he is no less impulsive and once again loses everything due to bad luck and his violent, selfish and vengeful nature.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Tangled Webs
- By Joseph R on 12-22-09
By: Thomas Hardy
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Far from the Madding Crowd (Educational Edition)
- By: Thomas Hardy, Francis Gilbert
- Narrated by: Jamie Parker, Lucy Scott
- Length: 17 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 1
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Performance3 out of 5 stars 1
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Story4 out of 5 stars 1
In a remote corner of early Victorian England, where traditional practices remain untouched by time, Bathsheba Everdene stands out as a beacon of feminine independence and self-reliance. However, when confronted with three suitors, among them the dashing Sergeant Troy, she shows a reckless capriciousness which threatens the stability of the whole community.
By: Thomas Hardy, and others
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Far from the Madding Crowd
- By: Thomas Hardy
- Narrated by: Davina Porter
- Length: 15 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 68
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 58
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 57
Gabriel Oak is a young shepherd. With the savings of a frugal life and a loan, he has leased and stocked a sheep farm. He falls in love with a newcomer eight years his junior, Bathsheba Everdene, a proud beauty who arrives to live with her aunt, Mrs. Hurst. She comes to like him well enough and even saves his life once, but when he makes her an unadorned offer of marriage, she refuses; she values her independence too much and him too little.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Great Love Story
- By Diane L Rouse on 05-21-19
By: Thomas Hardy
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The Woodlanders
- By: Thomas Hardy
- Narrated by: Samuel West
- Length: 14 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 328
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 268
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 265
Set in the Dorset landscape familiar to Hardy novels, The Woodlanders concerns the fortunes of Giles Winterborne, whose love for the well-do-do Grace Melbury is challenged by the arrival of a dashing and dissolute doctor, Edred Fitzpiers. When the mysterious Mrs Charmond further complicates the romantic entanglements, marital choice and class mobility become inextricably linked.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Thomas Hardy lesser known work
- By Molly Aultz on 06-12-08
By: Thomas Hardy
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Tess of the D'Urbervilles
- Penguin Classics
- By: Thomas Hardy
- Narrated by: Sian Clifford
- Length: 14 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 33
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 32
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Story5 out of 5 stars 32
When Tess Durbeyfield is driven by family poverty to claim kinship with the wealthy D'Urbervilles and seek a portion of their family fortune, meeting her 'cousin' Alec proves to be her downfall. A very different man, Angel Clare, seems to offer her love and salvation, but Tess must choose whether to reveal her past or remain silent in the hope of a peaceful future. With its sensitive depiction of the wronged Tess and powerful criticism of social convention, Tess of the D'Urbervilles is one of the most moving and poetic of Hardy's novels.
By: Thomas Hardy
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Under the Greenwood Tree
- The Mellstock Choir - A Rural Painting of the Dutch School
- By: Thomas Hardy
- Narrated by: Jamie Parker
- Length: 6 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 37
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 32
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Story4 out of 5 stars 32
Under the Greenwood Tree is an affectionate and youthful portrait of a world Hardy knew well - village life in 'Wessex' - in which a romantic tale is set against changing circumstances. The traditional feature of local music making performed by the village band and choir is challenged by the modern innovation of organ and organist providing music in the church.
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3 out of 5 stars
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I'm a Hardy fan but...
- By Jordan Rivers on 07-24-15
By: Thomas Hardy
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Cranford
- By: Elizabeth Gaskell
- Narrated by: Prunella Scales
- Length: 6 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 615
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 508
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 506
A vivid and affectionate portrait of the residents of an English country town in the mid-19th century, Cranford describes a community dominated by its independent and refined women, relating the adventures of Miss Matty and Miss Deborah, two middle-aged spinster sisters striving to live with dignity in reduced circumstances. Through a series of satirical vignettes, Gaskell sympathetically portrays changing small town customs and values in mid-Victorian England....
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5 out of 5 stars
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Quietly, subtly sweet and heartwarming
- By T. on 03-26-12
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Wives and Daughters
- By: Elizabeth Gaskell
- Narrated by: Prunella Scales
- Length: 25 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,944
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 1,639
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,632
Molly Gibson, the only daughter of a widowed doctor in the small provincial town of Hollingford, lost her mother when she was a child. Her father remarries wanting to give Molly the woman's presence he feels she lacks. To Molly, any stepmother would have been a shock, but the new Mrs. Gibson is a self-absorbed, petty widow, and Molly's unhappiness is compounded by the realisation that her father has come to regret his second marriage.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Superb! Story and Narration A++
- By Jo on 05-24-10
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The Count of Monte Cristo
- By: Alexandre Dumas
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 46 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 9,854
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 7,709
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 7,749
Dashing young Edmond Dantès has everything: a fine reputation, an appointment as captain of a ship, and the heart of a beautiful woman. But his perfect life is shattered when three jealous friends conspire to destroy him. Falsely accused of a political crime, Dantès is locked away for life in the infamous Chateau d'If prison. But it is there that Dantès learns of a vast hidden treasure.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A true Time-machine
- By Ramon on 12-27-10
By: Alexandre Dumas
Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?
The problem with having a movie adaptation of a great novel is that many people will never read the novel. In the case of this classic, that is a shame. The story, the characters, the natural setting and the action are all presented in beautiful prose that is rarely heard in contemporary writing. This unabridged release, narrated by the tremendously-talented Jamie Parker, is exquisitely "acted", with each character having their own "voice", and every sentence is phrased in a way that captures the ear and feeds the imagination of the listener. I could not be more pleased with an audiobook, and would have given Parker 6 stars if this were an option!What did you like best about this story?
The prose is beautiful and descriptive and I felt transported to the place and time of the story through the excellent voice acting of Jamie Parker.Which scene was your favorite?
Sorry, I couldn't possibly choose just one. The crafting of the story is even-handed and exquisite throughout.If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?
I wouldn't. See my initial comment.A Beautiful Classic, Beautifully Read!
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Entertaining
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new love
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A favorite!
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Thoroughly enjoyable!
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Good story. Excellent narrator.
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A classic which I had never read...
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Classic
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Fantastic performance!
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Beautiful Story
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