Editing Far from the Madding Crowd (section)

{{Short description|1874 novel by Thomas Hardy}}
{{Other uses}}
{{EngvarB|date=September 2013}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2024}}
{{Infobox book
| name          = Far from the Madding Crowd
| image         = Far-From-The-Madding-Crowd-1874-Title-Page.jpg
| caption       = The title page from an 1874 first edition of ''Far from the Madding Crowd''.
| author        = [[Thomas Hardy]]
| country       = England
| language      = English
| genre         = Novel
| publisher     = ''[[Cornhill Magazine]]''
| release_date  = 23 November 1874
| pages         = 464 pages (Harper & Brothers edition, 1912)
| isbn          = <!--n/a-->
| preceded_by   = [[A Pair of Blue Eyes]]
| followed_by   = [[The Hand of Ethelberta]]
}}

'''''Far from the Madding Crowd''''' is the fourth published novel by English author [[Thomas Hardy]]; and his first major literary success. It was published on 23 November 1874. It originally appeared anonymously as a monthly serial in ''[[Cornhill Magazine]]'', where it gained a wide readership.

The novel is set in [[Thomas Hardy's Wessex]] in rural southwest England, as had been his earlier ''[[Under the Greenwood Tree]]''. 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 faithless soldier Sgt. Frank Troy.

On publication, critical notices were plentiful and mostly positive. Hardy revised the text extensively for the 1895 edition and made further changes for the 1901 edition.<ref>{{cite book|title=Oxford Reader's Companion to Hardy|url=https://archive.org/details/oxfordreaderscom00norm|url-access=registration|editor=Page, Norman | location= Oxford|publisher=Oxford University Press |year= 2000|pages= [https://archive.org/details/oxfordreaderscom00norm/page/130 130–132]|isbn=978-0-19-860074-9}}</ref>

The novel has an enduring legacy. In 2003, the novel was listed at number 48 on the [[BBC]]'s survey [[The Big Read]],<ref>[https://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/bigread/top100.shtml "BBC – The Big Read"]. BBC. April 2003, Retrieved 31 October 2012</ref> while in 2007, it was ranked 10th on ''[[The Guardian]]''{{'}}s list of greatest love stories of all time.<ref>{{Cite news |first=Martin |last=Wainwright |title=Emily Brontë hits the heights in poll to find greatest love story |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2007/aug/10/books.booksnews |work=[[The Guardian]]|location=London |date=10 August 2007 |access-date=29 August 2009}}</ref> The novel has also been dramatised several times, notably in the Oscar-nominated [[Far from the Madding Crowd (1967 film)|1967 film]] directed by [[John Schlesinger]].