Far from the Madding Crowd (1874) is Thomas Hardy's fourth novel and his first major literary success. ... The novel is set in Thomas Hardy's Wessex in rural southwest England, as had been his earlier Under the Greenwood Tree.

What does the term madding crowd mean?

: acting in a frenzied manner —usually used in the phrase madding crowd to denote especially the crowded world of human activity and strife built his home far from the madding crowd.

Why is far from the madding crowd called that?

The title Far From the Madding Crowd comes from Thomas Gray's famous 18th-century poem "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard": "Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife, Their sober wishes never learned to stray; Along the cool sequestered vale of life They kept the noiseless tenor of their way." By alluding to ...