Thomas Hardy (2 June 1840 11 January 1928) was an English writer and poet who is most well known for his contributions to the naturalism movement. Hardys work also had traces of the Romantic and Enlightenment periods which had preceded him, even though his protagonists are often depicted as tragic characters who are struggling with their social status and their lot in life. In Far From the Madding Crowd, Hardys tale is one in which the characters lives and destinies are shaped by chance and forces outside their control. Hardy was mostly a natural poet who only wrote novels as a means to make a living, yet he produced classic novels such as Far from the Madding Crowd and Tess of the d'Urbervilles. Many of his novels took place in the semi-fictional county of Wessex, which Hardy based heavily off of his hometown Dorchester. This edition of Hardys Far from the Madding Crowd includes a Table of Contents.