Farfrom the Madding Crowd is perhaps the most pastoral of Hardy's Wessexnovels. It tells the story of the young farmer Gabriel Oak and his lovefor and pursuit of the elusive Bathsheba Everdene, whose wayward natureleads her to both tragedy and true love. It tells of the dashingSergeant Troy whose rakish philosophy of life was '...the past wasyesterday; never, the day after'. And lastly, of the introverted andreclusive gentleman farmer, MrBoldwood, whose love fills him with '...afearful sense of exposure', when he first sets eyes on Bathsheba. Thebackground of this tale is the Wessex countryside in all its moods.