Far from the Madding Crowd - Thomas Defendant Hardy - Bog

Gabriel Oak is an up-and-coming shepherd in the prime of life at twenty-eight years of age. With the savings of a frugal life, he has leased and stocked a sheep-farm. He falls in love with a newcomer eight years younger, Bathsheba Everdene, a proud and somewhat vain young beauty. She comes to like him well enough.