Summary Despite her promise not to reject Boldwood before his return, Bathsheba could not wait. “The farewell words of Troy, who had accompanied her to her very door, still lingered in her ears. He had bidden her adieu for two days, which were, so he stated, to be spent in […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Chapter 30Summary and Analysis Chapter 29
Summary “Bathsheba loved Troy in the way that only self-reliant women love when they abandon their self-reliance. When a strong woman recklessly throws away her strength she is worse than a weak woman who has never had any strength to throw away. One source of her inadequacy is the novelty […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Chapter 29Summary and Analysis Chapter 28
Summary At eight o’clock that midsummer evening, Bathsheba appeared in the fern hollow amid the soft, green, shoulder-high fronds. She paused, changed her mind, and was halfway home again before she caught sight of a red coat approaching. She considered Troy’s disappointment were she not to appear, and she ran […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Chapter 28Summary and Analysis Chapter 27
Summary The swarming of the bees was late that June. Bathsheba watched them finally gravitating toward one high branch of an unwieldy tree, forming a huge black mass. Since the farmhands were all haying, she decided to hive the bees alone. Wearing clothes that covered her completely, including gloves, hat, […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Chapter 27Summary and Analysis Chapter 26
Summary Troy’s first remark was an apology to Bathsheba for his brashness in their first encounter. He had inquired about her identity, he said, and should have known her to be the “Queen of the Corn-Market,” as someone had characterized her. He explained his presence now by saying he had […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Chapter 26Summary and Analysis Chapter 25
Summary “Idiosyncrasy and vicissitude had combined to stamp Sergeant Troy as an exceptional being. He was a man to whom memories were an incumbrance, and anticipations a superfluity. Simply feeling, considering, and caring for what was before his eyes, he was vulnerable only in the present. . . . With […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Chapter 25Summary and Analysis Chapter 24
Summary Bathsheba was in the habit of inspecting the homestead before retiring. Almost always, Gabriel preceded her on this tour, “watching her affairs as carefully as any specially appointed officer of surveillance could have done; but this tender devotion was to a great extent unknown to his mistress, and as […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Chapter 24Summary and Analysis Chapter 23
Summary “For the shearing-supper a long table was placed on the grass-plot beside the house, the end of the table being thrust over the sill of the wide parlour window and a foot or two into the room. Miss Everdene sat inside the window, facing down the table. She was […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Chapter 23Summary and Analysis Chapter 22
Summary “Gabriel lately, for the first time since his prostration by misfortune, had been independent in thought and vigorous in action to a marked extent. . . . But this incurable loitering beside Bathsheba Everdene stole his time ruinously.” On this first of June, Gabriel enjoyed the blossoming countryside and, […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Chapter 22Summary and Analysis Chapter 21
Summary Gabriel had been gone about twenty-four hours when, on Sunday, men came running to Bathsheba to report that many of her sheep had broken into a field of clover. “‘And they be getting blasted,’ said Henery Fray. . . . ‘And will all die as dead as nits, if […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Chapter 21