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Chapter 1 Gabriel Oak: About The Author

This document provides context about the story "Far From the Madding Crowd" and its author Thomas Hardy. It summarizes that the story is set in 19th century England and follows a woman named Bathsheba who inherits a farm and meets three suitors. It also notes that Thomas Hardy was a Victorian novelist who wrote about rural life and themes of love, destiny, and social issues in his works. The chapter excerpt then introduces the character Gabriel Oak, a farmer, and describes him witnessing Bathsheba on a wagon and paying her toll.

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Nguyễn Trương Quang Khải
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210 views2 pages

Chapter 1 Gabriel Oak: About The Author

This document provides context about the story "Far From the Madding Crowd" and its author Thomas Hardy. It summarizes that the story is set in 19th century England and follows a woman named Bathsheba who inherits a farm and meets three suitors. It also notes that Thomas Hardy was a Victorian novelist who wrote about rural life and themes of love, destiny, and social issues in his works. The chapter excerpt then introduces the character Gabriel Oak, a farmer, and describes him witnessing Bathsheba on a wagon and paying her toll.

Uploaded by

Nguyễn Trương Quang Khải
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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ABOUT THE STORY 

Set in 19th century England, far from the Madding Crowd tells the story of a beautiful young
woman, Bathsheba Everdene, who moves to the countryside to live with her aunt and later
inherits her uncle's farm. Over several years, she meets three men of very different
characters and backgrounds: Gabriel Oak, a young, poor farmer; Mr Boldwood, a rich
landowner; and Sergeant Frank Troy. Although one of the main themes of the novel is love,
it also explores how our destiny can be changed either by chance or by the decisions we
make.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Thomas Hardy was an English novelist and poet, born in Dorset in 1840. He was a Victorian
realist: he wrote about the problems people faced in their everyday life in England during
the Victorian era, a period from about 1837 to 1901. Rural values were an important theme
in Hardy's novels, and there are lots of descriptions of rural life in his work. Other important
themes in his novels include injustice, disappointment, destiny, nature and love. Many of his
characters are ordinary, working-class rural people; however, a lot of his novels feature
strong female characters.

Chapter 1 Gabriel Oak


Farmer Gabriel Oak was a quiet, sensible man. He was twenty-eight years old and
unmarried. And he was a man of good character. During the week, he worked in the fields
of his farm.

On a sunny morning in December, Gabriel Oak walked across his field on Norcombe Hill, in
the county of Wessex. He looked towards the road which went between Emminster and
Chalk Newton and saw a bright yellow wagon. Two horses were pulling the heavy wagon
slowly along the road. The driver was walking beside the wagon, which was loaded with
furniture. A woman was sitting on top of the furniture. She was young and very attractive.

Suddenly, the driver called to her. 'Something has fallen off the wagon, miss! I'll go back and
get it. The young woman waited quietly. She did not get down from the wagon to help the
driver. After several minutes, she looked back to see if the wagon driver was returning. He
was not, so she opened a small package that was beside her. She took a mirror from the
package and held it up to her face. As she looked in the mirror, she smiled.

The sun shone down on to the woman's red jacket, her pretty face and her dark hair.
Gabriel Oak watched her and smiled. The girl did not touch her hat, or her hair. She simply
looked at herself and smiled. Then she heard the wagon driver returning to the wagon. She
put the mirror into the package and waited for him to drive the horses forward.

When the wagon moved on, Gabriel Oak followed it to the tollgate. As he came nearer to
the wagon, Oak heard the driver arguing with the man at the gate.

“The toll is two pence,'' said the gatekeeper. But this wagon is large. You must pay two
pence extra. But the young woman would not pay the extra money. Oak thought that two
pence was too small an amount to argue about. He held out two pennies to the gatekeeper.
'Take this and let the young woman go through,' he said. The young woman looked down at
Oak. She did not thank him, but she told her driver to go on. Oak and the gatekeeper
watched her as the wagon passed.

‘She's a handsome woman,' said the gatekeeper. 'That's true,' said Oak. 'But unfortunately,
she knows it?

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