Like many Victorian novels of the same era, Far from the Madding Crowd was first published serially in a magazine. As still-young novelist who could not yet afford to write full-time, Hardy was delighted to be approached by Leslie Stephen, editor of the renowned Cornhill magazine, and asked to contribute a serial novel. In September 1873, chapters of Far from the Madding Crowd began to be published. The novel was Hardy's fourth, but it was his first novel to gain major praise and success, marking a new direction in his career. Far from the Madding Crowd finally allowed Hardy to give up his work as an architect and pursue writing full time.
Besides its popularity as a story and its...
