Now, Hardy’s name is synonymous with Wessex and it is largely down to Hardy that this Anglo-Saxon kingdom’s name came to be revived. Hardy first used the term ‘Wessex’ in Far from the Madding Crowd, for the region of south-west England in which most of his novels are set.

(‘Madding’ is an old word meaning ‘frenzied’ or ‘becoming mad’ and so doesn’t mean quite the same thing as ‘maddening’.) Between Under the Greenwood Tree and Far from the Madding Crowd, Hardy wrote A Pair of Blue Eyes, an interesting if not wholly successful novel which, in some important respects, foreshadows his later masterpiece, Tess of the d’Urbervilles. ‘Far from the madding crowd’s ignoble strife’ is a line from Thomas Gray’s 1751 poem ‘Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard’.

(We’ll say no more for fear of offering spoilers to those who’ve yet to read the book, or see a film adaptation.)Īs with Hardy’s second novel from two years earlier, Under the Greenwood Tree, Hardy borrowed the title of Far from the Madding Crowd from a previous work of literature: the title suggests the rural remoteness of the novel’s setting and its pastoral backdrop. As with many Hardy novels – consider Under the Greenwood Tree, The Trumpet-Major, and The Woodlanders for points of comparison – the Darwinian competition between the various male characters for the hand of the woman will lead to both tragedy and, thankfully, to happier outcomes.

The novel tells the story of Bathsheba Everdene and the three men who vie for her affections: the reliable and luckless shepherd Gabriel Oak, the dashing but selfish soldier Sergeant Troy, and the older, stern figure of Farmer Boldwood. Hardy himself adapted the novel for the stage in 1882, with Marion Terry (younger sister of the more famous Ellen) in the Bathsheba role. Over the years there have been other, more surprising, adaptations of the book: one of our favourite Far from the Madding Crowd facts is that in 1996 ( and again, more recently, in 2012) the Birmingham Royal Ballet staged a production of the novel. Now, in 2015, a new film adaptation is hitting the cinemas, with a screenplay by Starter for Ten author David Nicholls and with Carey Mulligan in the role of Bathsheba. Far from the Madding Crowd was first adapted for film in 1915 the most celebrated big-screen adaptation to date is John Schlesinger’s 1967 film, starring Julie Christie as Bathsheba Everdene.

Far from the madding crowd novel