Books like “Far from the Madding Crowd”

What to read after “Far from the Madding Crowd” by Thomas Hardy: a list matched by tropes, mood and atmosphere. Under each book you will see what it has in common.

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1
Wuthering Heights
Emily Brontë · 1847
Same genre: “Romance”
- Windswept Moors
On the Yorkshire moors, the foundling Heathcliff and Catherine grow up inseparable, then are torn apart by class and marriage. His long, bitter revenge consumes the next generation until their children find a way out.
2
Persuasion
Jane Austen · 1817
Similar plot moves: “Second Chance Romance” and “Slow Burn”
- Second Chance Romance
- Slow Burn
Eight years after Anne Elliot was persuaded to refuse the man she loved, Captain Frederick Wentworth returns from the sea, wealthy and still unmarried. Quiet, overlooked Anne must watch him court other women while her own feelings remain as strong as they ever were.
3
The Essex Serpent
Sarah Perry · 2016
Similar setting: “Windswept Moors”
- Windswept Moors
- Slow Burn
In 1893 the newly widowed Cora Seaborne moves to a village on the Essex marshes, drawn there by reports of a winged serpent. A keen amateur naturalist, she befriends the local vicar, whose faith is tested as the rumours spread, while the doubtful and the devout hunt for signs. A slow, atmospheric story of belief and desire.
4
The Secret Garden
Frances Hodgson Burnett · 1911
Similar setting: “Windswept Moors”
- Windswept Moors
- Coming of Age
Orphaned and sent to a gloomy Yorkshire house, Mary Lennox finds little to like until a robin leads her to a walled garden locked for years. With a local boy and her sickly cousin she brings the garden back to life, and the sadness buried in the house begins slowly to lift.
5
The Great Gatsby
F. Scott Fitzgerald · 1925
Shared in the plot: wealth, neighbour
- Second Chance Romance
- Love Triangle
Long Island, the 1920s. Nick Carraway becomes neighbour to the wealthy, secretive Jay Gatsby, who throws lavish parties for a single purpose: to win back Nick's cousin Daisy, married to the brutish Tom Buchanan.
6
Every Summer After
Carley Fortune · 2022
Similar plot moves: “Second Chance Romance” and “Slow Burn”
Every summer Persephone stayed at the lake and grew up alongside Sam, the boy next door, until one mistake ended everything. Twelve years later she returns for a funeral and finds Sam again, reopening the past they both buried.
7
I Capture the Castle
Dodie Smith · 1948
Similar plot moves: “Love Triangle” and “Slow Burn”
Seventeen-year-old Cassandra Mortmain writes her diary in a crumbling English castle where her family lives on almost nothing. When two wealthy American brothers arrive to claim the estate, love and money unsettle the household, and Cassandra grows up fast.
8
The Hound of the Baskervilles
Arthur Conan Doyle · 1902
Similar setting: “Windswept Moors”
- Windswept Moors
Legend says a demonic hound haunts the Baskerville family on the Dartmoor moors. Holmes and Watson look into the death of Sir Charles and protect his heir from whatever stalks the fog-bound landscape.
9
North and South
Elizabeth Gaskell · 1855
Same genre: “Romance”
- Slow Burn
- Coming of Age
Margaret Hale leaves the rural south for the northern mill town of Milton, where she clashes with John Thornton, a mill owner she finds harsh and proud. As a workers' strike divides the town, the two slowly come to respect each other's struggles and see past their first impressions.
10
Love and Other Words
Christina Lauren · 2018
Similar plot moves: “Second Chance Romance” and “Slow Burn”
As teenagers Macy and Elliot spent every weekend trading books in a closet and slowly falling in love, until one night tore them apart. Eleven years later they meet again in San Francisco, and the friendship and heartbreak they buried come rushing back as they decide whether to try once more.
11
Jamaica Inn
Daphne du Maurier · 1936
Similar setting: “Windswept Moors”
- Windswept Moors
After her mother's death, Mary Yellan goes to live with her aunt at Jamaica Inn on the bleak Bodmin Moor. Her uncle keeps the inn closed to travellers and answers to dangerous men from the coast. Mary must work out what her one remaining family is hiding before the moor and its secrets close over her.
12
The Thorn Birds
Colleen McCullough · 1977
Similar plot moves: “Love Triangle” and “Slow Burn”
On a sheep station in the Australian outback, Meggie Cleary grows up in the shadow of a family curse. She falls in love with Ralph de Bricassart, a priest whose ambition pulls him towards Rome, and the two stay bound to each other for decades by a love they can never openly have.