When Thomas Hardy described his plans for the novel that would become Far From the Madding Crowd, he referred to it as "a pastoral tale." By using this term, Hardy connected his forthcoming novel with a long literary tradition. Pastoral literature refers to a tradition of writing in various genres (including poetry, fiction, and drama) that focuses on describing country life, particularly the life of shepherds. This rural, agricultural lifestyle is often idealized and celebrated as a state of innocent happiness. Pastoral literature is often set sometime in the past so that the way of life it depicts can be contrasted with a more corrupt and complicated modern world; there is usually also a contrast between the country setting of the pastoral and a less positive urban world.
Interestingly, pastoral literature and its themes of reflecting on a past era when life was simpler and better dates all the way back to ancient Greece! Hesiod, an ancient Greek poet who probably lived and wrote sometime between 750 and 650 BCE, wrote a long poem called Works and Days in which he imagines different eras in human history. Hesiod imagined a time period that he called the Golden Age, in which people lived simple lives, dependent on agriculture, and attuned to the rhythms of nature. This idea continued to be a theme for many other ancient writers, notably Theocritus (who introduced the element of shepherds as figures who best represented this lifestyle) and Virgil (who adopted the pastoral as a way to criticize corrupt urban life).
Pastoral themes begin to be apparent in English literature beginning in the 1500s, after the works of many Classical writers had been rediscovered during the Renaissance. Writers like Edmund Spenser, Christopher Marlowe, and Sir Philip Sidney adopted themes of idyllic natural settings, often combining this with themes of romantic love. As a nod to the ancient origins of this tradition, the characters in pastoral writing would often be given Greek names. For example, in John Milton's famous poem "Lycidas" he uses a Greek name and a pastoral setting to meditate on the loss of a beloved friend. By the 18th and 19th century, English Romantic writers such as William Wordsworth had adapted some of these traditional pastoral elements into poetry focusing on celebrating nature and the individuals who lived according to the rhythms of the land.
Far From the Madding Crowd clearly displays some elements of the pastoral tradition. Gabriel's occupation as a shepherd, his humble personality, and his close connection to nature are all celebrated and help to mark him out as the novel's hero, and the man who deserves to marry Bathsheba. The plot of the novel is closely connected to the cycles of agricultural work, and Hardy offers beautiful and detailed descriptions of rural England. However, Hardy also brings in strong elements of realism. As Michael Squires explains, "there are many realistic details of actual rural life: sheep die, storms threaten, shepherds have misfortunes" (p.299). By refusing to idealize country life, and suggesting that people who live there have many problems and intense emotional experiences, Hardy expands the scope of what pastoral literature could be used to represent.
