Hardy revised the text extensively for the 1895 edition and made further changes for the 1901 edition. On publication, critical notices were plentiful and mostly positive. It describes the life and relationships of Bathsheba Everdene with her lonely neighbour William Boldwood, the faithful shepherd Gabriel Oak, and the thriftless soldier Sergeant Troy. It deals in themes of love, honour and betrayal, against a backdrop of the seemingly idyllic, but often harsh, realities of a farming community in Victorian England. The novel is set in Thomas Hardy's Wessex in rural southwest England, as had been his earlier Under the Greenwood Tree. It originally appeared anonymously as a monthly serial in Cornhill Magazine, where it gained a wide readership. 464 pages (Harper & Brothers edition, 1912)įar from the Madding Crowd (1874) is Thomas Hardy's fourth novel and his first major literary success.
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