Weatherbury Farm

In Far From the Madding Crowd, which is perhaps Thomas Hardys most popular novel, we leave Gabriel Oak and Bathsheba Everdene newly-married. Now, many years on, Bathshebas husband and three almost grown-up children have superseded the three diverse suitors of her youth. Bathshebas caprice and wilfulness has been replaced with the trials and tribulations of family life. All three children reject the careers chosen for them by their parents to become evermore cosmopolitan in their lives and outlook. As the children mature and make fewer demands on her time, Bathsheba becomes involved with Gabriels mission to improve the working and living conditions of agricultural labourers. She strives against prejudice to form a womens movement to uphold and promote the rights of Union members wives. But as Industrialisation filters slowly into Hardys Victorian rural scenes, the Oak family find Wessex life is changing forever. Is this change for the better?