• Far From the Madding Crowd

  • By: Thomas Hardy
  • Narrated by: Jill Masters
  • Length: 15 hrs and 43 mins
  • 4.1 out of 5 stars (211 ratings)

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Far From the Madding Crowd  By  cover art

Far From the Madding Crowd

By: Thomas Hardy
Narrated by: Jill Masters
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Editorial reviews

Author of Tess of the d'Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy published his epic account of English rural life, Far From the Madding Crowd, in 1874. Spanning years, this story details Bathsheba Everdene and Gabriel Oak's complex relationship. Jill Master's performance is perfect for this passionate audiobook. Capturing Hardy's romanticism, Master's British voice is airy and sweet yet dramatic. By consistently modulating her pacing and pitch, Masters ensures that this 15-hour saga captivates. Effortlessly, she handles both male and female voices. Fans of Victorian realist literature will certainly enjoy this complicated audiobook.

Publisher's summary

Thomas Hardy brings us an England that once existed but no more. It is rural, traditional, pastoral - a society of mannered conduct that flows like a deep river where powerful currents eddy and swirl. In this powerful novel of love and disillusion, Hardy's heroine is torn between the three men in her life. Passionate but capricious, her romantic involvements have fascinated generations of readers.

It was as a poet that Hardy wished to be remembered, but today critics regard his novels as an even more memorable contribution to English literature for their psychological insight, their instinctive delineation of English character, and their profound presentation of great tragedy.

Public Domain (P)1984 Jimcin Recordings

What listeners say about Far From the Madding Crowd

Average customer ratings
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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Very entertaining

The narrator does a great job changing her voice for each character. I will have my teenage daughters read this... Or listen to it.. When they are starting to date. What a great tale of love, infatuation, determination and selfishness .

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Like Jane Austen but the opposite!

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

If you love Jane Austin but hate her pesky, strong, female leads, Far From the Madding Crowd is the book for you! A bonafied nut job of a female lead who was independent (albeit ditsy) but brought to her knees by the womanizing bad boy, meanwhile an obsessive homicidal man forced her to make promises she doesn't want to, all while the "friend zoned" laborer waits by her side to pick up the pieces of her heart.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

Far From the Madding Crowd-Broken Chapters

I liked Jill Masters reading, it was neither riveting nor awful.
My complaint was of the overall recording.
They recorded it so that it would break in mid sentence... fading away to be picked up on the next disc. What? - They couldn't find the end of the chapter or cut it just right to fit on the allotted number of discs? The last disc has less than 10 minutes recording on it. That's wasted space, so the editor is at fault.
Basically, it's like listening to an 8-track tape... breaks mid-song to go to the next track. Annoying. They got rid of 8-tracks for a reason. This is 2008 and technology is there so you don't have to break mid-sentence when you can easily come to the end of the paragraph, or even break the disc's time so that whole chapters are together. It's called pacing, people!

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