Works of Thomas Hardy discussion
Far from the Madding Crowd
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Far From the Madding Crowd 4th Thread Chapter 30 - 38
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Gabriel has a very human moment where he weighs his own worth in the world,
”Is his life so valuable to him after all? What were his prospects that he should be so chary of running risk when important and urgent labor could not be carried on without such risk?”
He resolves to carry on, and then Bathsheba—who has been thoughtless—arrives, seemingly inspired to act against her husband’s carelessness and do her part in saving the farm’s produce.
In some beautiful writing, the storm is described as straddling heaven and hell. The lightning is “heavenly”, and the “Stygian” thunder refers to the river Styx of the underworld in classical mythology. The drama of this allusion is equaled, for Gabriel, by Bathsheba’s touch. ”Gabriel was almost blinded, and he could feel Bathsheba’s warm arm tremble in his hand—a sensation novel and thrilling enough; but love, life, everything human, seemed small and trifling in such close juxtaposition with an infuriated universe.”
As Bathsheba helps Gabriel, she also reveals herself to be still in search of Gabriel’s good opinion and respect—even if her pride prevents her from acknowledging how much she cares about his feelings for her in any less vague way. Still, her frankness and honesty show that she’s lost some of her insistence on pride, since she reveals to Gabriel the real, not quite romantic reason for her marriage to Troy.
While Bathsheba has an impulse to confide in Gabriel, she’s also concerned to keep some of her pride; and while on some level she recognizes that Troy’s behavior is unsavory, she also continues to love him. Gabriel’s thoughts on female contradictions don’t do full justice to this complex dance
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black as a cave in Hinnom - a metaphor for Hell, from 2 Kings 23:10 (sometimes also called Tophet (chapter 26), Gehinnom, Gehenna).
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We know that Thomas Hardy's knowledge of astronomy was good, and he gave these attributes to Gabriel if you remember, who could tell the hour exactly by the constellations. The author describes this in great detail but perhaps his knowledge of maths was not as good ...
What Thomas Hardy actually wrote was "parabolic curve" and in the margin in pencil, his editor Leslie Stephen corrected it to "hyperbolic curve"!
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We've commented before on how Thomas Hardy used red as a motif, (or perhaps emblem?) to highlight key moments in scenes. Here we have Gabriel noticing "how strangely the red feather of [Bathsheba's] hat shone in this light"
The other thing was Gabriel's uncertainty in how to address Bathsheba. This is the first time he has seen her since her marriage, and he calls her "ma'am" as a term of respect. But then he slips back into "miss", when he feels protective and concerned for her safety, and finally resolves on "mistress" - a safe appellation which he has used ever since he has been in her employ.
I thought this was a telling way of revealing Gabriel's state of mind, even though his thoughts are all taken up with the safety of the ricks.
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Thomas Hardy and William Harrison Ainsworth
Not to take anything away from the power of this writing, but I've just read some interesting information about the Storm chapter.
One of Thomas Hardy's favourite authors was William Harrison Ainsworth, and a favourite novel of his was the gothic romance Rookwood, which has been said to inspire the character of Dick Turpin as we know him today. In Rookwood there is a chapter called "The Storm", and this is what Carl J. Weber wrote in 1965:
"To save time, Hardy took his copy of the Ainsworth novel from the shelf, opened it to Book II chapter I, and proceeded to make free use of Ainsworth's description. He did not copy it word for word ... but he came close to doing so. In both accounts of the storm, the sequence of events is the same; the sultry weather, the confused activity of the animals, the calm, the vivid flash of lightning, the flash of lightning, the black sky and then (view spoiler). All this Hardy might, of course have learned directly from nature; no one will wish to deny him his possession of keenly observant eyes. But nature did not supply Hardy with the long list of identical words - sultry, lurid, metallic look, night, rook, lightning, flash, peal - which came right out of Ainsworth. The list would have been much longer if Hardy had not skilfully paraphrased Ainsworth, turning "kine" into "sheep", "deer" into "heifers", "the grave" into "a death", "hazy vapour" into "hot breeze", "sighing wind" into "expiration of air", "highest branches" into "summits of lofty objects" and "pitch dark" into "black sky". What resulted was undoubtedly a magnificent chapter - one that has commanded universal admiration ...
Hardy was never called upon to identify the man who had taught him how to describe a storm, for he had died before his indebtedness to Ainsworth had been noticed. It went undetected for 67 years."
Carl J. Weber had previously identified this in the April 1941 "Review of English Studies".
I thought this was worth copying out verbatim. It might be interesting to anyone who may have a copy of Rookwood, to compare and confirm.
(The spoiler just hides what will inevitably happen in ch 38 tomorrow!)
This is a gorgeous chapter, and I was thinking Hardy is warming up, honing his skills--part of which is inspiration from other writers apparently. :-) My favorite line was "A poplar in the immediate foreground was like an ink stroke on burnished tin." So if that was his own simile, I'm impressed. And even if it wasn't, the way he's woven his characters and the storm together is really beautiful, and that has to be all his own.
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Jean, that information about Ainsworth is really interesting; thanks for sharing it! (I've read one of his short stories, and wasn't overwhelmingly impressed with it; but I have one of his novels on my to-read shelf.)A couple of people have commented about Hardy's reluctance to refer to the Judeo-Christian God in his language about the storm, and his preference for pagan imagery when he's personifying aspects of nature. Though raised as an at least nominal Anglican, the adult Hardy was a skeptical agnostic (albeit one with a hunger for transcendent beliefs that occasionally shows itself). The Wkipedia article on Hardy (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_... ) has an informative section on his "Religious Beliefs" ("Beliefs About Religion" would be a more accurate title in this case), though you have to scroll down quite a ways to get to it.
Chapter 30, Hot Cheeks and Tearful EyesI haven’t much to add to the comments on this chapter except that I do recall Fanny telling Gabriel about her plans to marry Troy in confidence. So, I understand why Gabriel would have said nothing and kept her secret. I do consider this to be gentlemanly conduct. Gabriel was in receipt of Fanny’s letter but was not tempted to reveal her secret. Certainly a marked contrast to the ungentlemanly conduct of Troy.
Chapter 32, Night- Horses TrampingWow! Excellent job Bridget on your summary and also a big thank you to Jean for all the information and insight. I loved everyone’s quotes! All the ones I highlighted have been added already.
Jean: You have given me much food for thought here and Chapter 28, The Hollow Amid the Ferns has not let me go anyway. I have to consider the fact that indeed Hardy could very well have disguised the true nature of the encounter between Troy and Bathsheba. I do agree that would have been far more acceptable in the serial.
Chapter 33: In the Sun - A Harbinger I also found this chapter to be quite humorous and enjoyed reading it very much. I had to laugh at the comments the men were making about the upside of being injured or ill. It makes sense that laborers might not otherwise have a chance to read a book or court a girl.
Many thanks to Bridget and Jean for all the helpful explanations and research!
Chapter 34: Home Again- A TricksterThank you for all the helpful information, especially about the fort and feeble.
During Boldwood’s confrontation with Troy, Troy states “I like Fanny best” and also “I love Fanny best now”, can we assume there is a little truth in these statements?
I also have a great deal of concern for Boldwood who has now spent the whole of the night out walking, too troubled to rest apparently. Presumably trying to decide how to punish Troy as he threatened to do.
Am I imagining a theme in this second half of coins, or possibly what money can buy? Cain Ball alluded to how much the gold rings would have cost the parson. And here, Boldwood is trying to bribe Troy with what he hopes is enough money to secure Bathsheba’s honor. Another type of gold ring? Hmm, maybe it’s a stretch. Thoughts, anyone?
I also liked his comparison just a couple sentences earlier to a "line engraving". And I agree with all of you; the whole chapter was wonderfully evocative!
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I haven't seen any of the FFMC movies (yet:-) but I can well imagine how a director wouldn't be able to resist adding rain to this scene. That would be visually dramatic, with Bathsheba and Gabriel soaking wet. Glad I read the book first :-)
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We've commented before on how Thomas Hardy used red as a motif, (or perhaps emblem?) to highlight key moments in scenes. Here we have Gabriel notic..."
I didn't pick up on Gabriel changing how he addresses Bathsheba, that's a great detail, thanks Jean. And also thank you for the comparison of the Ainsworth text. That was fascinating. I'm glad you quoted it verbatim.
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Thank you, Werner, for the link to wikipedia and helping fill in Hardy's "beliefs in religion" (I like the way you turned that phrase). I was hoping someone would bring out that information.
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Lori, I'm so glad you've caught up to us!! I think you are right about money and coins becoming a motif. I like your connection between the parson's gold rings, and the coins Boldwood uses to tempt Troy.
You could also compare the gold rings, to the wealth of the crops in the field that Bathsheba and Gabriel have just saved. The crops represent a wealth that is earned by sweat and hard work by a community of people. The gold rings are less noble, ostentatious, worn by one man, even though he's a man of God.
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It’s now 5 a.m., and the wind keeps shifting ominously. It begins to fall more heavily. Gabriel recalls fighting against fire eight months earlier in the same place he’s fighting against water now. His love for Bathsheba has continued all the while. He hears voices from the barn, the guests are leaving, abashed.
Soon Gabriel too returns home. He passes Boldwood, and they each comment on the other’s haggard appearance. Gabriel says he’s been working on covering the ricks and asks Boldwood if his are safe. Boldwood says no, that he overlooked the ricks this year. This has a dramatic effect on Gabriel, who understands how preposterous such forgetfulness would have seemed only a few months before.
Finally, Boldwood does admit that he’s been out of sorts lately. Gabriel says he did think Bathsheba would marry him. Boldwood imagines he’s the parish joke and Gabriel hastens to deny it. Boldwood says the truth is that there was never any real engagement or promise. He turns his face to Gabriel and cries that he’s weak, foolish, and grieving. Sometimes he thinks it would be better to die than live. But then he says no woman ever had power over him for too long. He asks Gabriel not to repeat their discussion.
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Gabriel and Boldwood have increasingly come to recognize the similarity of their positions with respect to Bathsheba. Nonetheless, Boldwood's situation, Gabriel begins to realize, is actually far more dire than his own. It’s interrupting his daily life and livelihood. All along we were worried Bathsheba would lose her harvest investment, but in a reversal of fortune, it is Boldwood who will take the financial hit.
Gabriel may love Bathsheba himself, but having been rejected by her, he was also critical of her careless attitude towards Boldwood. Just as Bathsheba sought to defend her husband to Gabriel, here Boldwood defends Bathsheba to him, before making it clearer than ever that he’s in great distress.
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Flaxman’s suitors . . . .Mercury - alludes to the sculptor and artist, John Flaxmann (1775-1826) and his illustration “Mercury Conducting the Souls of the Suitors to the Infernal Region”.
It depicts a scene from The Odyssey where Mercury (messenger of the gods) is leading Penelope’s suitors off to Hades. Many of Flaxman’s drawings were engraved by William Blake and were widely admired in Hardy’s day. They would have been instantly known to Hardy’s original audience, much like the Mona Lisa in known today.
I wanted to post an image of the illustration, but I couldn't find a website that would allow me to do that. If you google the title, you will easily find it (in case you are curious).
This is the end of Installment 8. As usual, we will take a day off between installments. We will start installment 9 on Thursday, May 2nd. Looking forward to reading everyone's comments :-)
Chapter 37: The Storm - The Two Together Great summary and great observations by all.
I also loved the language in this chapter and felt that this is Hardy’s best writing thus far. For me, the storm was very poetic and represented the storm in Bathsheba’s heart as she is surely beginning to experience disappointment and frustration in her marriage. We know how indignation she was leaving the party and one does not stop being governed by their emotions overnight. By the same token, surely there is a storm raging in Gabriel’s heart. He knows now that Bathsheba is lost to him, and by a man of lesser quality, what we might call a playboy today. I can imagine the inner turmoil Gabriel must be feeling. He has thus far been true to his love for Bathsheba and will serve her as best he can while acknowledging that at some point he may have to walk away from the situation if Troy’s manner becomes unbearable. And, whew! I’m caught up.
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Thanks for raising that at this point, Lori. I do believe it's one of those permanent ambiguities! With Tess of the D’Urbervilles, because of what happened after ch 6 "The Chase", there is no question, despite Thomas Hardy's guarded language there too. (view spoiler). But even if that happened here, Bathsheba is now married so it would not be an issue.
If we analyse chapter 28, sure enough it all follows logically, and can be interpreted literally step by step. Thomas Hardy made sure no reader could possibly object. But he also made sure we could see an obvious subtext or other meaning.
Chapter 37 could have clarified it, as Bathsheba "explains" herself to Gabriel - but the facts about their relationship are just as shielded, and we have to remember that although Bathsheba is honest, she would want to present herself in the best light.
So “I went to Bath that night in the full intention of breaking off my engagement to Mr. Troy. It was owing to circumstances which occurred after I got there that—that we were married. Now, do you see the matter in a new light?”
“I do—somewhat.”
What is Gabriel thinking? Perhaps he is not clear in his mind, but suspects that she succumbed to Troy's sexual advances, and then married hastily. It seems an obvious interpretation, but Bathsheba attempts to play this down - still without being clear.
"I saw, when it was too late, that scandal might seize hold of me for meeting him alone in that way."
Troy's manipulation is clear, whether the "more beautiful" woman really existed or was a convenient fiction. Bathsheba reports him saying: "His constancy could not be counted on unless I at once became his.... " (the unspoken or missing word must be "mistress" or an equivalent).
But we really are no further forward. All we know now, is that Bathsheba feared for her reputation, and had not been willing to be a kept woman in public view for all to see. But this is not to say theirs was not already a hidden sexual relationship e.g. two occasions back in the environs of Weatherbury are possibilities, and at least once in Bath, when she first arrived. She is extremely keen to defend Troy, but at no point says he is honourable or anything like it 🙄
We know Bathsheba is a principled and moral person at heart, with Victorian perceptions about how a young woman should behave. But time and time again we have seen that she does not live up to this, in any of her her personal dealings with people. And her norm from childhood was a father who was known to have liaisons with other women.
Here she uses the words "grieved and troubled ... jealousy and distraction" . Her conscience is clearly troubling her. We do have to ask ourselves why. 🤔
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Gabriel Oak is amazed by Boldwood's manner, and tries to help/advise in a practical way. But it is Boldwood who says here " I feel it is better to die than to live!” whereas Gabriel "was cheered by a sense of success in a good cause." having dismissed the thought of fighting fire and flood for "futile love ... Oak was generous and true, and dismissed his reflections." And in ch 37 he vowed “I will help to my last effort the woman I have loved so dearly.”
Boldwood worries us with his talk of death. And what of Bathsheba? In ch 37 she also said "For if I were to die—and I may die soon—". What could this mean?
Thank you so much Bridget, for taking us through these momentous chapters 😊
Is this the right illustration by Flaxman, Bridget?
Lori wrote: "Chapter 30, Hot Cheeks and Tearful EyesI haven’t much to add to the comments on this chapter except that I do recall Fanny telling Gabriel about her plans to marry Troy in confidence. So, I unde..."
Thank you for remembering this, Lori! It would be just like Gabriel to keep this confidence no matter what. And congrats on getting caught up!
I love how this chapter shows us two men, both obsessed with a woman who doesn't return their love, and how for one his love adds to his strength and character, and for the other, it diminishes it. Some of us are more fragile, for any number of reasons, and it appears Boldwood is in that category.
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Thank you Jean for catching my mistake and messaging me. I apologize for confusing everyone. It was late at night when I posted, and I got confused!
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That's it!! Thank you Greg!!
Bionic Jean wrote: "Todays chapter 38 was short, but telling. We see the essential difference between these two erstwhile suitors. Boldwood is becoming more unhinged by the moment, neglecting his corn crop, which he w..."The last three chapters have been very telling and definitely strike a note of foreboding — for Bathsheba in her marriage, for Boldwood, and for the community because so many will be effected by the actions of them both. And Gabriel can see what is happening and can do so little about it.
Thank you to Bridget for steering us through this segment of the story!
I'm a little behind, but I gotta say re Chapter 37: It doesn't get any better than Thomas Hardy describing a thunderstorm. "... the fifth flash, with the spring of a serpent and the shout of a fiend." I also gotta say: This chapter (37) was very ... sexual.
Thank you everyone for the great comments. I'm caught up for the moment as well!Did anyone notice, when Gabriel and Bathsheba were on the ricks during the storm, that the lightning revealed the shadows of "two human shapes, black as jet" that were the two of them? It reminded me of that earlier scene with Troy and Bathsheba, when their shadows looked monstrous.
Perhaps it was a practice at the time, but I'm puzzled that Troy continues to wear his military coat even though he has been discharged. Was that customary, or is it Troy's red sportscar (or both)?
Chapter 38Thank you Bridget for summarizing this chapter for us. I have to admit this shorter chapter was a welcome break.
Jean: Of course I can’t be certain what Bathsheba was referring to when she said “I may die soon” but I confess I shrugged it off as her logical conclusion that now married childbirth was inevitable. I fully admit I based that on an assumption. (Sidebar: Didn’t Queen Victoria fear the very same fate in her younger years?)
Kathleen: Thank you so much! It was a challenge to get up to speed but I got there. I love your observations.
Erich: Thank you for the reminder of the shadows. That’s worth a second look.
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Good, chilling thought about childbirth, Lori.
I think we may be starting a new thread tomorrow ...
Lori wrote: "I shrugged it off as her logical conclusion that now married childbirth was inevitable..."That was my interpretation as well, although my thought was that she is already pregnant.
Erich: Yes, Bathsheba could already be with child. There’s been enough time for that, especially if there were premarital shenanigans going on.
Personally, I didn't take Bathsheba's "I may die soon" comment as necessarily a reference to possible pregnancy. There's no suggestion of pregnancy in the text up to that point, beyond the obvious fact that (in a time when birth control didn't exist) any married couple could expect pregnancy as a possibility starting with the wedding night.As I noted before, I find nothing in the text to indicate "premarital shenanigans." Besides the points I made earlier, in the scene where Troy demonstrates his sword drill, Hardy gives us a moment-by-moment account of the couple's words and actions the whole time that they're together, with no handy interval into which we can fit a sexual encounter. The exact opposite is true in the scene in Tess that's appealed to as a parallel; the two incidents are handled very differently, and there's authorial comment in the Tess passage indicating sexual contact, which is totally absent in the account here. Bathsheba's explanation of her marriage to Gabriel also did not appear to me, when I read it, to hint at any kind of premarital sex. IMO, we 21st-century readers have much more of a tendency to read sexual connotations into a great many literary conversations and interactions than 19th-century authors and readers would, simply because we live in a popular culture that's highly sex-saturated, and they did not. It's natural to us to imagine that our cultural perceptions are the only possible ones humans could have, which makes it very difficult for us to enter into the mindset of a past time which might be very different from ours.
A similar cultural disconnect operates with regard to death. Most of us expect to live long lives, and death is something we try not to focus much attention on. if someone today says, 'I may die soon," we assume they must have a specific reason for it, or else they're psychotically morbid. But in pre-antibiotic, low-tech 1874, life expectancy was short; young, healthy people could succumb very quickly to sudden illnesses or accidents, most people who died did so at home, and death was a normal aspect of life. A person who said "I may die soon" in 1874 was simply being honest and realistic --though as some of the comments above remind us, given the relatively primitive state of obstetrics in that era, it's true that a young married woman had even more reason for grim realism than a male in comparable health!
Werner wrote: "Personally, I didn't take Bathsheba's "I may die soon" comment as necessarily a reference to possible pregnancy. There's no suggestion of pregnancy in the text up to that point, beyond the obvious ..."You could be right, Werner. They did have a couple of days on their own in Bath, though, and there was also the scene when Bathsheba left Gabriel to meet Troy for a clear assignation that we didn't see being made earlier.
Bathsheba could have been being melodramatic to gain Gabriel's sympathy, or she may have a legitimate sense that she could die. Whichever, Bathsheba has changed and seems to recognize that her marriage to Troy was folly. Would the Bathsheba of the earlier chapters in the book have made such a statement?
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If you prefer not to see any sexual symbolism or ambiguity, that's fine. Please do bear in mind that 19th Century English country people did largely see children born outside wedlock as still part of the community though (see the article I linked to before), as birth and death were all part of nature's pattern to them. There are many examples in Thomas Hardy (including one in the novel you mention) and other country authors that they did not suffer the same rejection as their city counterparts.
I admit to being intrigued by your stance, and wonder what you think Bathsheba meant by "I may die soon". Your second paragraph seems to be just saying that life expectancy was shorter then, as we all know, but then this would be the norm, so why would she comment on it, and at that point? It seems an extraordinarily gloomy thought for any in-love, recently married young woman to have 🤔
Erich wrote: " Would the Bathsheba of the earlier chapters in the book have made such a statement?"No, she definitely wouldn't have. This reminds us that's she's a dynamic character --that is, one who's changing and growing inside, not just passing through different experiences.
Bionic Jean wrote: "...English country people did largely see children born outside wedlock as still part of the community though (see the article I linked to before). There are many examples in Thomas Hardy and other country authors that they did not suffer the same rejection as their city counterparts."
Yes, absolutely! (I wasn't implying any disagreement with that.)
Bionic Jean wrote: "I ...wonder what you think Bathsheba meant by "I may die soon". Your second paragraph seems to be just saying that life expectancy was shorter then, as we all know, but then this would be the norm, so why would she comment on it, and at that point?"
That's a good, fair question. The whole sentence of which those words are a part is, "For if I were to die --and I may die soon-- it would be dreadful that you should always think mistakenly of me." So in that context, she's making that statement to explain why she's telling him, in confidence, something that a lady in her position wouldn't normally tell to an employee. So it underlines her seriousness in disclosing it. (Interestingly, Gabriel doesn't appear to think the statement is out of the norm. No special reaction of shock, consternation or concern is described --though, if he thought she was speaking of something more imminent than the usual precariousness of life, such a reaction would be more in character.)
I sometimes say that as a reader, I "cut my teeth" on Victorian and Edwardian novels. Like most of us here, I've read a fair amount of fiction from that era (though my familiarity with it falls far short of yours!) The more we read of it, the more we learn, and the easier it becomes to see, as it were, through other eyes. That said, for myself, there's still something of a cultural lens that's an innate part of me and therefore difficult to shed; I'm still a 21st-century reader, not a Victorian reader. That's why my comment above on that point was in 'we/us," not "you," terms; and I do suspect that I'm not alone in this, though that's not said as a criticism (and if it were, it wouldn't be a fair one!) of my reading or anyone else's. But it probably would be better stated as true for 'some of us," not necessarily all of us!
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Werner, for a polar opposite to this view, you might like to read Peter J. Casagrade's paper in the Norton edition which I know you have. (Everyone, please beware of spoilers there though!) It's a lengthy piece which focuses on her fixed nature, and how the experiences she passes through do not affect this. p448 - 467 "A New View of Bathsheba Everdene".
cf. p. 450 the few sentences in the last complete paragraph beginning:
"Because [Hardy] does not believe an essential change in Bathsheba is possible, rather than depicting her in a gradual process of growth towards self-knowledge ..."
p. 455 the final paragraph:
"Hardy's scepticism about the essential change occurring in Bathsheba can be seen best in his oblique and allusive rendering of the two crucial moments in her career ..."
p. 462 in the paragraph after the quotation:
"Bathsheba's offences are neither forgiven nor atoned for; not are they diminished by deepfelt contrition. They are made unimportant by the passage of time ... Hardy marks her limited capacity for amendment ..."
p. 465 top
"she cannot make a new start but must .... revert to nature"
Obviously many details and examples follow these statements. The entire paper is well argued and well worth reading. I also found it a plausible enough theory for why Bathsheba is less convincing to me as a rounded character, than his later heroines.
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To be honest, it never crossed my mind that Bathsheba might be pregnant when she said, "I may die soon". I feel a little silly that I didn't even consider that, because that's a real possibility.
I took her statement in the context of Gabriel and Bathsheba having just had the harrowing experience of finishing off the ricks in a lightning storm. Shortly before her statement, Gabriel says “We had a narrow escape! . . .You had better go down.”. I thought Bathsheba was responding to that moment of contemplating her mortality.
I think either interpretation is good. As Erich says, Whichever, Bathsheba has changed and seems to recognize that her marriage to Troy was folly..
It's good to be reminded that pregnancy - though joyful - was much more dangerous for Victorian women.
Bridget: What an excellent thought about the dangers of working outdoors during a storm still being on Bathsheba’s mind. I hadn’t thought of that but it’s definitely possible that’s what she’s thinking of.
There is so much hidden from us in this novel. There have been no references that I can think of about any fevers or illnesses in Casterbridge or even in Cain Ball’s news of Bath. So, my mind went to the newly wed bride and of course whatever took place in Bath between Bathsheba and Troy before and after they wed.
Interestingly, I was reviewing Chapter 33 and I found this statement by Matthew Moon:
“Ah, she’ll wish her cake dough if so be she’s over intimate with that man.”
Which was Moon’s reaction to Cain’s eyewitness account of seeing Bathsheba and Troy “arm-in-crook, like courting complete”.
So, a local man who has lived in the area his whole life and knows Troy thinks it’s a possibility that Troy has enough skill with the ladies to get Bathsheba into his bed or at least in a compromising position. Whether or not anything happened before they tied the knot, only Hardy knew for sure.
Bionic Jean wrote: "And a little more ... Thomas Hardy and William Harrison Ainsworth Not to take anything away from the power of this writing, but I've just read some interesting inf..."
Message 107, Ch 37
I confess that this information about Thomas Hardy using the words of another writer without crediting the other writer really shocked me. And I feel like a fool, as I was really taken with the description of the upcoming storm. I was not able to access the article which Jean has referred to above, but I did find several mentions online about Hardy's embarrassing leaning towards plagiarism.
Here is another recorded instance of his lifting from another author, word-for-word.:
" At best, Hardy still stands guilty of plagiarism-not
from Longstreet's Georgia Scenes, to be sure, but from Gifford's
History of the wars occasioned by the French Revolution: from the commencement of hostilities in 1792, to the end of the year 1816: embracing a ... of most of the public... Volume 2 of 2. That
Gifford acknowledged his indebtedness for the passage (as Long-
street also did) makes Hardy's publication of it as original the
more conspicuous.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/3044328?...
This particular dishonest act was found in Hardy's The Trumpet-Major, where he describes a military drill.
Why this information about Thomas Hardy has been pushed under the rug even today surprises me. It actually makes me angry. I note that Mr. Weber kindly says that Hardy was "inspired" by Ainsworth; and somewhere else there is a comment that Ainsworth "taught" Hardy how to read a storm.
Ainsworth did no such thing. His words were stolen unapologetically by Thomas Hardy.
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Lori: this is a great detail you pointed out. Thank you for reminding us of that!
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It surprised me too, Lee. I don't feel quite as strongly as you do about it, but I'm not quite sure what to make of it either. I'm not trying to say plagiarism is ok (it's not), but maybe in the past it was done more than we realize? (a complete guess on my part). Hardy is a fabulous writer, why he would plagiarize is beyond me. Hmmm, it's a head scratcher for sure.
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Link to Thread 5
Wait until you see what happens next. The story is getting really good!
Works of Thomas Hardy
Books mentioned in this topic
Far From the Madding Crowd (other topics)Hardy of Wessex: His Life and Literary Career (other topics)
The Trumpet-Major (other topics)
History of the wars occasioned by the French Revolution: from the commencement of hostilities in 1792, to the end of the year 1816: embracing a ... of most of the public... Volume 2 of 2 (other topics)
The Trumpet-Major (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Thomas Hardy (other topics)Carl J. Weber (other topics)
Thomas Hardy (other topics)
William Harrison Ainsworth (other topics)
Thomas Hardy (other topics)
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Lightning begins to strike. Gabriel wearily wipes his brow and wonders if this is too dangerous for him to carry on. He resolves to continue, with the precaution of a tethering chain, carried up the ladder, fastened and then allowed to trail to the earth for grounding. In another flash, the figure of Bathsheba ”the only venturesome woman in the parish” is illuminated beneath him. She cries that the stacks are all neglected despite her husband’s promise. She asks what she can do, and resolutely begins to follow Gabriel’s orders.
As Bathsheba fetches reed sheaves for Gabriel, they hear the first thunder. She clutches Gabriel’s sleeve in fear, and he steadies her. After a few minutes, the lightning and thunder continue, and Gabriel marvels at the terrible beauty, and at the feeling of Bathsheba’s trembling arm.
When lightning slices the tall tree on the hill down its length in a loud crack: Gabriel tells Bathsheba they narrowly escaped, and she should go down. He follows her, ”the darkness was now impenetrable”. They stand together in silence for a while as the storm passes. Gabriel marvels that no rain has yet fallen, and he continues thatching.
Bathsheba continues to help, as they’ve checked the barn, and the others are still in a stupor. Bathsheba says tentatively she wants to explain why she galloped away to Bath. She says that she went fully intending to break off her courtship with Troy. She was alone in a strange city, and immediately began to fear scandal. Then Troy said he’d seen a more beautiful woman than herself that day and couldn’t be constant if they didn’t get married. Between jealousy and distraction, she whispers, she married him. She hopes for Gabriel’s better opinion now.
Gabriel doesn’t reply, and Bathsheba quickly adds that Troy wasn’t to blame. She doesn’t want him to say anything more about it and continues with the sheaves. Gently, Gabriel tells her to go to sleep, he can finish this alone. She thanks him gratefully, and Gabriel continues to work, musing on how contradictory her female nature can be. Suddenly he hears the vane shift, the change in wind foretells a disastrous rain.