Far From the Madding Crowd

Thomas Hardy’s first major literary success, ‘Far from the Madding Crowd,’ published in 1874, gave the name of Wessex to the landscape of south-west England, and the first to gain him widespread popularity as a novelist. In rural Victorian England, independent and wilful Bathsheba Everdene has come to Weatherbury to take up her position as a farmer on the largest estate in the area. Her valiant presence draws three very different suitors- Gabriel Oak (a generous shepherd), Boldwood (a proud, relentless Farmer) and Sergeant Troy (charming, unethical soldier). Each, in striking ways, perturbs her decisions, entangles her life, and tragedy emerges, threatening the stability of the whole community.
Authentically portraying the superstitions and traditions of a countryside community, ‘Far from the Madding Crowd’ shows the speculative position of a woman in a man's world. The novel depicts the many faces of love, including heartfelt love and unscrupulous and manipulative adoration. It portrays a deep understanding of human sentiment and is undeniably one of Hardy's greatest love stories.

Thomas Hardy was born in a cottage in Higher Bockhampton, near Dorchester, on 2 June 1840. He was educated locally and at sixteen was articled to a Dorchester architect, John Hicks. In 1862 he moved to London and found employment with another architect, Arthur Blomfield. He now began to write poetry and published an essay. By 1867 he had returned to Dorset to work as Hicks's assistant and began his first (unpublished) novel, The Poor Man and the Lady.
On an architectural visit to St Juliot in Cornwall in 1870 he met his first wife, Emma Gifford. Before their marriage in 1874 he had published four novels and was earning his living as a writer. More novels followed and in 1878 the Hardys moved from Dorset to the London literary scene. But in 1885, after building his house at Max Gate near Dorchester, Hardy again returned to Dorset. He then produced most of his major novels: The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886), The Woodlanders (1887), Tess of the D'Urbervilles (1891), The Pursuit of the Well-Beloved (1892) and Jude the Obscure (1895). Amidst the controversy caused by Jude the Obscure, he turned to the poetry he had been writing all his life. In the next thirty years he published over nine hundred poems and his epic drama in verse, The Dynasts.
After a long and bitter estrangement, Emma Hardy died at Max Gate in 1912. Paradoxically, the event triggered some of Hardy's finest love poetry. In 1914, however, he married Florence Dugdale, a close friend for several years. In 1910 he had been awarded the Order of Merit and was recognized, even revered, as the major literary figure of the time. He died on 11 January 1928. His ashes were buried in Westminster Abbey and his heart at Stinsford in Dorset.