Far from the Madding Crowd is set in the late 19th century, in a fictional countryside county in southwestern England called Wessex. This novel is the first book Hardy set in Wessex, a setting he would return to many times (notably in Tess of the D'Urbervilles, Jude the Obscure, and The Mayor of Casterbridge, three of his major works). In fact, several characters, including Mr. Boldwood, cross over into these later narratives (one of the trademarks of Hardy’s style).
The title of the novel, Far from the Madding Crowd, references the isolation of this community tucked away in the country. Hardy himself was raised in an isolated part of Dorset, almost the southernmost point of England, and returned to the region in his adulthood. Dorset, and the city of Dorchester in particular, is often seen as the basis for Wessex.
Physically, Wessex is a beautiful picture of the English countryside. From the beginning of the novel, the landscape is described in minute, stunning detail. However, this landscape often transforms to reflect the emotions of characters as they experience them (e.g. Fanny’s turmoil outside of the officers’ barracks). The natural world also poses a dangerous challenge to the inhabitants of Weatherbury, the small town where Bathsheba moves to take over her uncle’s farm. There are frequent fires and storms, as nature becomes the symbol of man’s struggle against contingency and circumstance.
In late-19th-century Britain, it was controversial for women to own land and become farmers, as Bathsheba does. Married women were only permitted to own land independent of their husbands in England four years before Hardy’s novel was published, thanks to the Married Women's Property Act of 1870.
Unmarried women had long been allowed to own property (some scholars estimate some 10% of the land in Britain was owned by women in the 18th and 19th centuries), though British law did not ultimately give women full property rights until 1926. Women farmers often faced prejudice and social rejection, as Bathsheba does at many points in the novel.
