Far From The Madding Crowd

Had dinner with good old friends yesterday and this great book, Far From The Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy, was mentioned in passing. Many people must have read this book, so there is no need to reiterate the contents.

But for interesting trivia, the beautiful and contemplative title was taken from Thomas Gray's poem Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard (1751):

"Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife
Their sober wishes never learn'd to stray;
Along the cool sequester'd vale of life
They kept the noiseless tenor of their way."