Far from the Madding Crowd is a novel by 19th century English novelist Thomas Hardy. It is probably Hardy's only non-tragic novel. It has a happy end in sharp contrast to the gloom and doom at the end of Jude the Obscure (Hardy's last novel), The Major of Casterbridge, and Tess of the D'Ubervilles. It might also, perhaps, be described as an early piece of feminist literature since it deals with the life of an independent woman.
