Far from the Madding Crowd thank him, he asks if she needs a shepherd. She uncovers her face and reveals herself to be none other than Bathsheba. She has recently inherited her uncle's estate and is now wealthy. Though somewhat uncomfortable, she employs him. Meanwhile, Bathsheba has a new admirer: the lonely and repressed William Boldwood. Boldwood is a prosperous farmer of about forty, whose ardour Bathsheba unwittingly awakens when – her curiosity piqued because he has never bestowed on her the customary admiring glance – she playfully sends him a valentine sealed with red wax on which she has embossed the words, "Marry me".
A Face in the Crowd (novella) novel "Doctor Sleep" at the Savannah Book Festival, in Savannah, Georgia on February 19, 2012, King mentioned the same idea again. After describing the gist of it, King said he did not know how the story ended, so he told the audience, "I'm gonna give this story to you, you guys write it." Incidentally, Stewart O'Nan was in the audience. A Face in the Crowd (novella) A Face in the Crowd is a novella by Stephen King and Stewart O'Nan, originally published as an e-book on August 21, 2012, as well as an audiobook, read by Craig Wasson. Stephen King