Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy, Fiction, Literary

Far from the Madding Crowd, the first of Thomas Hardy's "Wessex" novels, tells the story of a -- well, not a love triangle, because there are four people involved. A love square? -- something like that. Bathsheeba Everdene (the only girl in this, ahm, ménage à quatre) has three suitors she must choose among: Gabriel Oak; wealthy, temperate, and middle-aged Farmer Boldwood; and Sergeant Francis Troy. And you know she picks the wrong one, don't you? -- This is a Thomas Hardy novel, for God's sake; things never work out right for anybody. But all the same, there's a lot to be learned from the way fate finds the characters . . .