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Gabriel Oak
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Gabriel Oak

fictional character
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Article History

Gabriel Oak, fictional character, a skillful, hardworking, and honest young farmer in Thomas Hardy’s novel Far from the Madding Crowd (1874). Oak is the first of several suitors for the beautiful but seemingly capricious Bathsheba Everdene. Though she rejects his love, he remains loyal to her and is rewarded in the end by Bathsheba’s hand in marriage.

This article was most recently revised and updated by Kathleen Kuiper.