Far from the Madding Crowd was the first of Hardy’s Wessex novels to receive significant critical acclaim. Although there are common threads throughout his works, fans of Bathsheba Everdene may also find Eustacia Vye, the protagonist of Hardy’s subsequent novel The Return of the Native (1878), compelling.

When Far from the Madding Crowd was initially released, there were rumors that George Eliot (the pseudonym of Mary Ann Evans) had authored it. Eliot’s novel Middlemarch, first published in 1872, is widely regarded as her magnum opus.

Critical analysis frequently highlights the deep connection between Hardy’s characters and the settings of his novels. One scholarly work that delves into this topic is Noorul Hasan’s Thomas Hardy: The Sociological Imagination (1982). Hasan’s study is comprehensive, dedicating an entire chapter to Far from the Madding Crowd and uncovering subtle elements that contemporary readers might initially overlook.

One of the most detailed biographies of Thomas Hardy is Martin Seymour-Smith’s Hardy (1994). This biography is often considered the definitive account of the author’s life.