《远离尘嚣》是托马斯·哈代的第一部成功的长篇，也是他此后一系列以威塞克斯乡村为背景的优秀长篇小说的第一部。作品反映了资本主义发展在英国农村城镇的社会、经济、道德、人伦、风俗等方面所引起的深刻而剧烈的变化，表现了现存道德观念和法律制度与这一变化之间的冲突，以及处于这一变化冲突间的“威塞克斯乡民”的惶惑和抗争。

Far From the Madding Crowd (1874) is Thomas Hardy's fourth novel and his first major literary success. It originally appeared anonymously as a monthly serial in Cornhill Magazine, where it gained a wide readership. Critical notices were plentiful and mostly positive. Hardy revised the text extensively for the 1895 edition and made further changes for the 1901 edition.

Thomas Hardy(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.