Far from the Madding Crowd

"Far from the Madding Crowd" is the story of an independent farm mistress, pursued by three: a wealthy gentleman, a desperate sergeant, and a sensible farmer. The difficult problem of choice, the eternal drama of relationships between men and women, intrigues, secrets, and true passion are presented in a novel that became the author's first literary success. Hardy remarkably touched the strings of the souls of readers across three centuries. His novel is still considered scandalous and undermining the foundations of contemporary society.
"Far from the Madding Crowd" is part of the so-called cycle of "Wessex novels," where Hardy vividly and powerfully depicts the forces of rural life, with few equals in this regard in 19th-century English literature. In 1912, Hardy included it in the list of "Novels of Character and Circumstance" along with the following books: "Return of the Native," "Mayor of Casterbridge," "In the Land of the Woods," "Tess of the d'Urbervilles," and "Jude the Obscure."
An interesting fact: editions of his works were accompanied by meticulously drawn maps of the county, as he was trained as an architect. By creating the "fictional" county of Wessex, Hardy illustrated the collapse of the old way of life in rural England through specific human destinies.