Hardy’s first major success as a novelist came in 1874 with the publication of Far from the Madding Crowd which was published in the Cornhill Magazine in twelve parts from January to December 1874. It came out as a novel in the November of that same year. 

Both Hardy and Gaskell had work published in The Cornhill. Gaskell’s Wives and Daughters was serialised between August 1864 and January 1866. It ended two months after her death and was left unfinished. Frederick Greenwood, the magazine’s editor, finished off the story in line with her plan, or so he maintained!  

By the time Hardy was publishing with Smith, Elder &Co. , the editor was Leslie Stephens, Virginia Woolf’s father, who was much more aware of public opinion and very concerned about some of Hardy’s writing which he felt was too unconventional. One particular stumbling block was the presentation of Fanny Robbin’s dead baby. A number of Hardy’s novels came up against publishers who were rather wary about the effect the content might have on public and ultimately marketability.

Have things changed,  we ask ourselves!

Far from the Madding Crowd was written at Hardy’s family home in Higher Bockhampton, Dorset. The cottage is set in a lovely secluded spot on the edge of heath and woodland , an area Hardy uses in both Far from the Madding Crowd and The Return of the Native.  It is a wild and ancient place, just as Hardy describes it; and although it is close to the A35, a major route from Dorchester to Bournemouth via Puddletown, Hardy’s Weatherbury, this area  feels totally isolated. You can imagine yourself in the novels as there is a sense that little has changed down the centuries-except perhaps more trees.  While we were there, the weather treated us to showers of misty rain which made it feel even more Hardyesque.

Diane Duffy

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