This may be a dumb question, but what does the title mean? I (maybe naively) thought that I would be introduced to a 'crowd' that went by the name 'Madding' and someone wanted to get 'far from' them.
I've heard people use this phrase in speaking. I had always heard of this novel and thought they were borrowing the phrase from the novel.
Evidently the novel's title is borrowed from a popular phrase.
Anyone know what it means???