Far from the Madding Crowd is the first of Thomas Hardy's great novels, and the first to sound the tragic note for which his fiction is best remembered."-Margaret Drabble
Far from the Madding Crowd, the fourth novel written by Thomas Hardy, is a pensive yet pastoral novel that initially appeared in serial form in the late 1800's. It has since become one of the most popular books of English literature, with its rich rhythms of rural life, beautiful and independent heroine, and romantic intrigue.