Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy, published anonymously in 1874,  centers on its heroine, Bathsheba Everdene, a newcomer to the Wessex countryside who has come to live with her aunt.  In short order she has three suitors:  Gabriel Oak, a young shepherd who asks for her hand and is rebuffed, but hired by her nevertheless;  William Boldwood, an older, prosperous and repressed farmer, whom she teases and refuses; and Sergeant Frank Troy, returning to his native country after military service, whom she marries. Troy proves to be a gambler and romantically attached to another. The hand of fate intervenes, secrets are revealed, and conflicts lead to desperate measures.  Two of the three rivals come to grief, and Bathsheba finally sees the light of her one true and selfless friendship just as he is set to depart for California.

Far From the Madding Crowd, which takes its title from Thomas Gray’s “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard”, was Hardy’s first major success.  It appeared initially in serial form in Cornhill Magazine and was revised by Hardy in 1895 and again in 1901. It ranks 48th on the BBC’s “Big Read” list of the best-loved novels of all time and 10th on The Guardian’s list of the greatest love stories of all time. It has been adapted frequently for stage and screen, most recently in the 2015 David Nicholls film starring Carey Mulligan.