I recently learned that Thomas Hardy's novel Far From the Madding Crowd was first published anonymously in Cornhill Magazine. As far as I know, publishing novels as monthly serials was reasonably common in those days (see Dickens, for example), but why wouldn't he put his name on it? Unlike Marian Evans, who used a male pseudonym for her novels, Hardy didn't have to struggle against the sexism of the day. Was there another reason for him not to use his real name?

Why did Hardy publish Far From the Madding Crowd anonymously?

I recently learned that Thomas Hardy's novel Far from the Madding Crowd was first published anonymously in Cornhill Magazine. As far as I know, publishing novels as monthly serials was reasonably common in those days (see Dickens, for example), but why wouldn't he put his name on it? Unlike Marian Evans, who used a male pseudonym for her novels, Hardy didn't have to struggle against the sexism of the day. Was there another reason for him not to use his real name?

Why did Hardy publish Far from the Madding Crowd anonymously?