Historical fiction book · Curated
Far from the Madding Crowd
Thomas Hardy · historical fiction
Bathsheba Everdene inherits a Weatherbury farm and hires the shepherd Gabriel Oak, whose flock she has already seen ruined; a valentine she meant as a joke binds Farmer Boldwood to her, and Sergeant Troy marries her before the storm, Fanny Robin, and a Christmas shooting sort the three suitors. Thomas Hardy’s 1874 novel is Victorian romance historical fiction of a woman who will run her own land, and of Wessex patience against a red coat.
Why read it: A perennial title-search Victorian novel—the Hardy courtship readers still look up by name (and the films), and a Weatherbury counterpart to Tess of the d’Urbervilles already on the shelf (not a sequel).
About this historical novel
Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy is historical fiction set around c. 1869–1873 in the Victorian / Gilded Age period with key settings including Weatherbury, Wessex, Dorset, England. Bathsheba Everdene inherits a Weatherbury farm and hires the shepherd Gabriel Oak, whose flock she has already seen ruined; a valentine she meant as a joke binds Farmer Boldwood to her, and Sergeant Troy marries her before the storm, Fanny Robin, and a Christmas shooting sort the three suitors. Thomas Hardy’s 1874 novel is Victorian romance historical fiction of a woman who will run her own land, and of Wessex patience against a red coat.
On HisFic we tag it under 2. Historical romance and 1. Literary historical fiction so you can pair it with similar story types. Recurring themes include courtship, independence, rural life, jealousy, and loyalty. A perennial title-search Victorian novel—the Hardy courtship readers still look up by name (and the films), and a Weatherbury counterpart to Tess of the d’Urbervilles already on the shelf (not a sequel).
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Plot summary
Bathsheba Everdene inherits a Weatherbury farm and hires the shepherd Gabriel Oak, whose flock she has already seen ruined; a valentine she meant as a joke binds Farmer Boldwood to her, and Sergeant Troy marries her before the storm, Fanny Robin, and a Christmas shooting sort the three suitors. Thomas Hardy’s 1874 novel is Victorian romance historical fiction of a woman who will run her own land, and of Wessex patience against a red coat. A perennial title-search Victorian novel—the Hardy courtship readers still look up by name (and the films), and a Weatherbury counterpart to Tess of the d’Urbervilles already on the shelf (not a sequel).
Subgenres
Eras
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More like this on HisFic
Curated titles that share era, story type, or themes.
- Tess of the d'Urbervilles · Thomas Hardy
When the Durbeyfields learn they may be fallen d’Urbervilles, young Tess is sent to claim kin at Trantridge—and Alec d’Urberville’s assault sends her from a Wessex dairy and a marriage to Angel Clare toward the gallows at Wintoncester. Thomas Hardy’s 1891 novel is Victorian literary historical fiction of class, purity myths, and a woman England would not forgive.
- The French Lieutenant's Woman · John Fowles
In 1867 Lyme Regis, gentleman-paleontologist Charles Smithson is engaged to a proper heiress when he becomes entangled with Sarah Woodruff, the outcast the town calls the French lieutenant’s woman. John Fowles’s novel is Victorian historical fiction that both inhabits a mid-century love story and lets a modern narrator question how such stories end.
- Anna Karenina · Leo Tolstoy
Anna Karenina has a husband, a son, and St. Petersburg society—until a Moscow railway station and the officer Count Vronsky pull her into an affair the salons will not forgive; beside that ruin, landowner Konstantin Levin tries to make a marriage and a farm mean something. Tolstoy’s 1870s novel is Imperial Russian historical fiction of passion, class, and the question of how to live—the tragic counterpart to War and Peace already on the shelf.
- The Age of Innocence · Edith Wharton
In 1870s Gilded Age New York, lawyer Newland Archer is days from marrying flawless May Welland when her cousin, Countess Ellen Olenska, returns from a ruined European marriage and makes the tribe’s rules visible. Wharton’s Pulitzer novel is historical fiction of old New York: opera boxes, Newport summers, and a love affair society will not permit.
- Madame Bovary · Gustave Flaubert
In 1840s Normandy, Emma Rouault marries the kind country doctor Charles Bovary, then finds Yonville, motherhood, and provincial dinners too small—and spends herself on Rodolphe, on Léon in Rouen, and on silks she cannot pay for, until arsenic in the armoire ends the romance she had read about. Gustave Flaubert’s 1857 novel is Victorian literary historical fiction of a woman who wanted a different century, and of the French provincial world that would not give it to her.
- Days Without End · Sebastian Barry
An Irish immigrant and his partner fight in the Indian Wars and Civil War (Walter Scott Prize 2017).
Regions & places
Britain & Ireland
Weatherbury · Wessex · Dorset · England
Themes
- courtship
- independence
- rural life
- jealousy
- loyalty
Tags
classic · romance