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Halls of the Dark Muse

How much of a Romance is Far From Madding Crowd?

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Dark Muse
, 07-22-2010 at 02:29 PM (1245 Views)
A Victorian group that I belong to has selected to read Far From Madding Crowd in August, and I am on the fence about whether or not I wish to partake.

I am intrigued to read Hardy's work, and I have read Tess and enjoyed it and I really like his prose work but based upon the synopsis I have read in regards to FFMC it does not sound like something that immediately grabs my interest.

Not surprisingly books about Love Triangles (or love squares as I have been told it was) do not generally catch my interest and make me want to read them.

Though a lot of 19th century literature does typically tend to involve some focus around romance, I am afraid that FFMC is going to swing too much in that direction.

So if it is just going to be some heart warming love story, or some Victorian version of a romantic comedy than odds are it is not something I will want to devote me time to reading.

Updated 07-22-2010 at 07:32 PM by Dark Muse

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  1. qimissung's Avatar
    It's not a romance at all.

    I thought you didn't like Tess, DM. Well, Hardy is not a romanticist,imho. He explores the social issues of his day and he is not much interested in happy endings; although it must be said that this one is not as dark as Tess.
  2. Dark Muse's Avatar
    No I did not say I did not like Tess, I said that for me it read more like a Dark Comedy than a Tragedy because it was so melodramatic, but I did not mean to imply that I disliked it, I just could not help but to find some parts of it amusing in how thick Hardy really poured the tragedy on. It was kind of like a Soap Opera.

    I did enjoy it, I just could not take it seriously as a heart wrenching tragedy and there were parts of it that did make me laugh out loud because it was so over the top.

    So in my own warped little way I liked it.