Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy
Published 1874 · 413 pages · 139,973 words · about 10 hours at an average pace · Literary Fiction, Victorian Literature
How hard is Far from the Madding Crowd to read?
Far from the Madding Crowd scores 55 out of 100 for difficulty on ReadingRate, making it quite demanding. The score is a weighted composite of nine measures: four of how hard the prose is to parse, five of how hard the meaning is to extract.
- Vocabulary: 62 out of 100
- Victorian literary prose with agricultural vocabulary and Wessex dialect terms.
- Sentence structure: 60 out of 100
- Hardy characteristic periodic sentences, though less elaborate than later novels.
- Abstraction: 55 out of 100
- Philosophical themes grounded in pastoral setting. Nature as moral backdrop.
- Information density: 55 out of 100
- Detailed agricultural scenes. Information conveyed through observation and setting.
- Narrative indirection: 48 out of 100
- Omniscient narration with clear sympathy for characters. Hardy guides interpretation.
- Symbolic density: 65 out of 100
- Natural symbolism throughout: the storm, the sword, the seasons. Setting carries meaning.
- Ironic distance: 50 out of 100
- Hardy sympathizes with his characters while maintaining perspective on their illusions.
- Resolution withholding: 40 out of 100
- Clear resolution with marriages and deaths. Less tragic than later Hardy.
- Structural complexity: 52 out of 100
- Linear narrative following seasonal cycle. Conventional Victorian structure.
How Far from the Madding Crowd is regarded
Far from the Madding Crowd holds a literary regard score of 80 out of 100, weighing its place in the canon, its critical reception, its influence on other writers, and the standing of its author. Regard is measured separately from difficulty: a demanding book is not necessarily an admired one.