Thomas Hardy, OM (2 June 1840 – 11 January 1928) was an English novelist and poet. A Victorian realist in the tradition of George Eliot, he was influenced both in his novels and in his poetry by Romanticism, especially William Wordsworth. Charles Dickens was another important influence.Like Dickens, he was highly critical of much in Victorian society, though Hardy focused more on a declining rural society." Far From The Madding Crowd" is the fourth novel by Thomas Hardy, of 1874, and his first literary success. The young farmer Gabriel Oak, leading a frugal life and save and got a loan, runs a sheep farm. He falls in love with the beautiful Bathsheba Everdene and poor, just arrived to live with her aunt, and asks for her hand. Bathsheba rejects him. After a few months, the social status between the two spilled: Bathsheba inherited her uncle's farm, and Oak has lost all his possessions in a stormy night. Oak finds himself then employed by Bathsheba, first as pastor then as a factor...