Narrator Nathaniel Parker
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 his junior, Bathsheba Everdene, a proud
and somewhat vain young beauty who arrives to live with her aunt, Mrs. Hurst.
She comes to like him well enough, and even saves his life once, but when he makes
her an unadorned offer of marriage, she refuses; she values her independence too much
and him too little. Gabriel's blunt protestations only serve to drive her to haughtiness.
After a few months, she moves to Weatherbury, a village some miles off. When next they
meet, their circumstances have changed drastically. Independent and spirited Bathsheba
Everdene is now a farmer on the largest estate in the area. Her bold presence draws three
very different suitors: the gentleman-farmer Boldwood, soldier-seducer Sergeant Troy and
the devoted shepherd Gabriel Oak. Each, in contrasting ways, unsettles her decisions and
complicates her life, and tragedy ensues, threatening the stability of the whole community.

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