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

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. The book was his first major literary success. It originally appeared anonymously as a monthly serial in Cornhill Magazine, where it gained a wide readership. Critical notices were plentiful and mostly positive. Hardy revised the text extensively for the 1895 edition and made further changes for the 1901 edition.