FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD

Narrator Stephen Thorne's extensive radio drama experience is put to great use in this classic tale set in nineteenth-century Britain. In an exploration of tragic love, Hardy writes of central characters whom you either sympathize with or despise, and peripheral characters with plenty of personality. Thorne performs the farmer, Gabriel Oak, with equal amounts of tenderness and strength, while giving the beautiful Bathsheba Everdene both the qualities of a vixen and a devoted wife. Although the relationships between Bathsheba and her many suitors are serious in tone, Thorne brings a great deal of humor to the scenes involving the townspeople and the continual struggles of rural life. K.M.D. © AudioFile, Portland, Maine [Published: DEC/JAN 00]