Summary After a short wait, Bathsheba granted the men an audience. They had settled on benches at the foot of the hall. Bathsheba opened the time book and the canvas moneybag. Liddy sat beside her “with the air of a privileged person.” Bathsheba announced her dismissal of the bailiff and […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Chapter 10Summary and Analysis Chapter 9
Summary Bathsheba’s home, which “presented itself as a hoary building, of the early stage of Classic Renaissance,” was once the manorial hall of a small estate. Ornate stone pilasters, finials, and other Gothic features adorned it. All the outlines were softened by a mossy growth. The entire complex of buildings […]
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Summary The malthouse was “inwrapped with ivy” and had a cupola on the roof and one window, which formed a small square in the door. Inside, the room glowed with light from the hearth. “The stone-flag floor was worn into a path from the doorway to the kiln, and into […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Chapter 8Summary and Analysis Chapter 7
Summary “Bathsheba. . . . scarcely knew whether most to be amused at the singularity of the meeting, or to be concerned at its awkwardness.” The other firefighters enthusiastically endorsed Gabriel, and so she sent him to her bailiff. All the helpers were to be rewarded with refreshments at Warren’s […]
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Summary Casterbridge was holding its February hiring fair. A few hundred hearty workers stood about, each showing the symbol of his trade: carters, a bit of whipcord on their hats; thatchers, straw; shepherds, their crooks. One young fellow’s “superiority was marked enough to lead several ruddy peasants standing by to […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Chapter 6Summary and Analysis Chapter 5
Summary “The more emphatic the renunciation, the less absolute its character.” This Gabriel learned when he heard that Bathsheba had gone to Weatherbury. Why or for how long she had gone, he did not know. His affection mounted, but he maintained his even temper. The lambing phase of the sheepfarming […]
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Summary Gabriel ascertained in town that the young woman was Bathsheba Everdene. “This well-favoured and comely girl soon made appreciable inroads upon the emotional constitution of young Farmer Oak.” He waited to watch her each day at the milking and dreaded the time when the cow should go dry and […]
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Summary Next morning, Gabriel heard the girl’s pony coming up the hill. Guessing that she had come to look for her hat, he hurriedly searched for it and found it in a ditch. Returning to his hut, he watched the girl approach. To avoid low branches, she lay flat on […]
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Summary Swirling winds blew over Norcombe Hill one St. Thomas’ Eve. “The trees on the right and the trees on the left wailed or chaunted to each other in the regular antiphonies of a cathedral choir.” Mingling with the wintry midnight sounds came the sounds of a flute. They issued […]
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Summary Twenty-eight-year-old Gabriel Oak was surveying his fields one mild December morning. From behind a hedge, he watched a yellow wagon come down the highway, the wagoner walking beside it. When the wagoner retraced his path to retrieve a lost tailboard, the horses halted. This delay permitted Oak to view […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Chapter 1