<i><b>Far from the Madding Crowd</b></i> (1874) is Thomas Hardy&#39;s fourth novel and his first major literary success. It originally appeared anonymously as a monthly serial in <i>Cornhill Magazine</i>, where it gained a wide readership.<br />The novel is set in Thomas Hardy&#39;s Wessex in rural southwest England, as had been his earlier <i>Under the Greenwood Tree</i>. 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. 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.