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The Mayor of Casterbridge

by Thomas Hardy, Keith Wilson (Introduction and Notes)

3.74 of 5 stars 3.74 · rating details · 19,445 ratings · 895 reviews

‘I’ve not always been what I am now’

In a fit of drunken anger, Michael Henchard sells his wife and baby daughter for five guineas at a country fair. Over the course of the following years, he manages to establish himself as a respected and prosperous pillar of the community of Casterbridge, but behind his success there always lurk the shameful secret of his past and a pers...more

Paperback, Penguin Classics, 448 pages

Published March 27th 2003 by Penguin Books Ltd (first published 1886)

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Jun 16, 2012 karen rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: littry-fiction, distant-lands

this is hardy's most perfectly-constructed novel. there are others that are more appealing, to me, (am i allowed to say that?), but this one is such a perfect cause-and-effect, every-action-has-a-reaction kind of book, that it should really be his most popular and successful, instead of tess, which by comparison, is pure melodrama.

mayor is full of the trappings of melodrama - convenient and inexplicable deaths, characters long out of the picture returning at the least opportune times, overheard...more

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Oct 07, 2007 Elizabeth rated it 5 of 5 stars

I give it five stars because it seems nearly a perfect example of its type of craft. This book has an intertwined and flawless plot that is never overcomplicated; it is full of wonderful language, rich with regional variation, for instance the tenor of Donald Farfrae's Scottish is exceptionally musical and not like the speech of his peers. There were moments reading this book I felt so much under the sway of the author's power that I could observe him wirte himself into one tight plot corner and...more

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Mar 14, 2013 Sue rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Sue by: Read with Constant Reader Classic

Shelves: british-britain, classics, fiction, read-in-college, re-read-2013, read-2013

It seems The Mayor of Casterbridge can end only in one direction as this Mayor is continually victimized by his own shortcomings. As the novel begins, we witness the famous selling of his wife while he is in a drunken stupor, not caring about anything or anyone else in the world. Years later, he has his chance to make changes, amends but his essential character prevents this. He sees evil and devils where there are none and increases small faults to large. He turns friends to enemies and enemies...more

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May 15, 2013 Jason Koivu rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

I'd heard Hardy was a bit of a chore, so out of all of his chunky novels I chose The Mayor of Casterbridge to be my first. I'm not sure it was a wise choice. Not because I thought it was bad by any means. The writing's quite good, the story held my interest, but jeez louise this is bleak stuff! Stories based on drunken missteps that linger into lifelong regrets do not generally lend themselves to frivolity. No, this is not a feel good generator. Are any of Hardy's? Is there a wise choice? I've n...more

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Jul 07, 2011 Karla (Mossy Love Grotto) rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobook, classic-lit, 3-and-a-half-stars, 19th-century-lit, read-it-for-the-lolz, tons-o-death

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. 3.5 stars
A depressing story about depressing people. The main character, Michael Henchard, takes foot-shooting to an artistic level by being unpleasant and self-centered at all the wrong times to the wrong people. Mean and petty-minded, he can't not act like a jerk and ass (drink or no drink), which of course brings him all kinds of hurt which he by turns feel is deserved and undeserved. Either he's at heart an unpleasant person, or his extended period of sobriety leads to dry drunk behavior. Ma...more 3.5 stars
A depressing story about depressing people. The main character, Michael Henchard, takes foot-shooting to an artistic level by being unpleasant and self-centered at all the wrong times to the wrong people. Mean and petty-minded, he can't not act like a jerk and ass (drink or no drink), which of course brings him all kinds of hurt which he by turns feel is deserved and undeserved. Either he's at heart an unpleasant person, or his extended period of sobriety leads to dry drunk behavior. Many times he knows he's sabotaging himself, but can't stop doing what he does on impulse. A demon is driving him, and his feet-first jump into the bottle again would have happened, regardless of events IMO. He was just waiting for that 21-year vow to expire.

Needless to say, I didn't much care for him and only wished that he had tossed himself off the bridge for suicides that Hardy had described with such care, rather than dying in some inn from starvation and chronic depressive madness (or whatever it was). Hardy did a bait and switch on me there.

I can't name any character who I was entirely sympathetic to. Even Farfrae seemed like a blind dolt, although he was far more likeable than most of the lot. But I can't shake the feeling that it didn't feel much like a STORY that I got involved in. It was more like watching a bunch of depressed and fatally flawed little toys moved around and crushed by unfeeling and bored Fate.

That said, I like Hardy's writing. It's easy on the ear, although that might have been helped considerably by the reader, Nigel Anthony, who has a VERY pleasant voice and made each character's voice distinctive, even the old women (one of whom sounded like Letitia Cropley from The Vicar of Dibley). So, well done! It kept me listening to the end, whereas if I'd been reading the book, there's a slim chance I might have set it down and never picked it back up again - if the plot had started to outweigh my enjoyment of the writing.

I'll gladly read more Hardy, but it will be awhile.(less)

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Jul 11, 2010 Christopher H. rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: british-literature, victorian-literature, historical-fiction, thomas-hardy, read-in-2010, my-western-canon

I am in the midst of reading all of Thomas Hardy's novels in the order that he wrote them. Well, at least the more well known novels. While most of Hardy's 'Novels of Character and Environment' have a fairly pronounced pastoral presence, The Mayor of Casterbridge is distinctly a novel about characters in a relatively urban setting, the Wessex town of Casterbridge.

The Mayor of Casterbridge is a relentless novel. It is a relentlessly sad story, and a relentlessly painful story to read. Change the...more

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Nov 24, 2008 Laura rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: classic, english-lit

Truth is stranger than fiction except in this story, which presents a circuitous series of tragic circumstances that only the cruelest force — a depressed novelist — could dream up. Actually, I have no idea if Hardy was depressed when he wrote this book, but I certainly was by the time I finished reading it. The story begins with an itinerant hay-trusser, Michael Henchard, selling his wife and baby daughter for five guineas (!!) in a fit of drunken madness. Unbelievably enough, it goes downhill...more

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Dec 18, 2008 Jason rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: classics, victorian

In Mayor of Casterbridge, Hardy tells the unmitigatedly tragic story of the strong-willed, domineering, some-times alcoholic Michael Henchard. From Henchard's unpardonable act of drunken folly in the opening scene, Hardy takes the reader through an unlikely series of mishaps and three hundred thirty some pages of ruin.

Among other things, this is a book about timing, more specifically bad timing. While Henchard is ultimately responsible for most of the ill that befalls him and others, the primary...more

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May 10, 2008 Gavin rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Anyone

This was one of six books that I had to read for English Literature 'O' Level. Of the six it was the only one I enjoyed; and let me say I really enjoyed it. My mother reckons I like Hardy because she was reading Jude the Obscure when she was pregnant with me, and she may have a point, but all I know is that this was the first of Hardy's works I read. Since then I have read almost his entire oeuvre, not including the poetry, of which I have only read a little. The Dynasts is, however, on the read...more

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Jan 18, 2012 Boof rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: british-authors, classics, uk, victorians, read-in-2012, my-most-amazing-books

When I began this book I have to admit that I didn't think the three words I'd be using to describe it would be drama, excitement and intrigue . In fact, I really had no intention of reading this book at all any time soon as a friend of mine had to study it in school as a teenager and told me it's the worst book she's ever read and that had stayed with me and filed into the "don't bother" part of my brain. So then, just before Christmas I saw or heard something about this book and that it was ab...more When I began this book I have to admit that I didn't think the three words I'd be using to describe it would be drama, excitement and intrigue . In fact, I really had no intention of reading this book at all any time soon as a friend of mine had to study it in school as a teenager and told me it's the worst book she's ever read and that had stayed with me and filed into the "don't bother" part of my brain. So then, just before Christmas I saw or heard something about this book and that it was about a man who sells his wife and baby daughter at a fayre and immediately I thought that sounds intriguing and off I popped to pick up a copy. How glad I am that I did - The Mayor of Casterbridge has turned out to be one of my favourite books! I loved it!

Michael Henchard is a young man of twenty-one and walking the countryside of Dorset with his wife, Susan, and their baby girl, Elizabeth-Jane, looking for work. They decide to rest a while in a small village where there is a fayre and several drinks later, Michael starts loudly asking for bidders to buy his wife. After accepting 5 guineas from a sailor he wakes later to realise that they have actually gone and when he realises what he has done he swears not to drink a drop more of alcohol for another 21 years (as long as he has so far lived). He starts to make enquiries about where the sailor and his family may have gone but nobody knows who he is and Michael is too ashamed of his conduct to search too effectively and he sets off on the road once more, alone.

The story then fast-forwards eighteen years and Michael is now the Mayor of Casterbridge (modelled on Dorchester in Dorset). It's difficult to say more about what happens next as I really don't want to give it away - this book is much better read if you know nothing about the characters and what is to come yet as there are plenty of twists and turns along the way. The fuller title for The Mayor of Casterbridge is The Life and Death of a Man of Character, and that is really what this book is based around - Michael Henchard and his fall and rise (and fall again). The main cast of characters is small enough that we really get to know them well and care about them: Susan and Elizabeth-Jane become part of the story again as does a Scottish traveller looking for work, Donald Farfrae and a young lady, Lucetta Templeman, who gets caught up in something that will come back to haunt her in a big way later in the book.

Henchard really is a man of character, as the title suggests, and he is prone to jealousy, impulsiveness and malice but in turn he can be caring, warm and reflective meaning that the reader never hates him, but actually feels for him as he is his own harshest critic. What astounded me was Hardy's understanding of human nature: time and time again I was amazed that he had managed to get it so spot on; to really make me feel as the characters did and understand why they behaved the way they did.

What I really loved about this book, though, was the drama. This is why I love all the Victorian books I have read so far - they're like watching a soap-opera. The Mayor of Casterbridge has it all - love, hate, greed, jealousy, deceit and repentence. And watch out for a scene involving a skimmington-ride (what the Victorians - and those before them - used to do to humiliate people, particularly adulterous women or women who beat their husbands which involved a very rowdy and public parade with effigies of the persons concerned being ridden through town on the back of donkeys) which has extremely tragic consequences.

Verdict: I heart Thomas Hardy! This is the second book of his that I have read (the first being Tess) and I now fully intend to gorge myself on the rest this year. Forget your pre-conceptions about dry and dull Victorian literature - this book has it all! A firm favourite now and one I will definitely read again at some point. (less)

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Jul 17, 2008 Meg rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: psychologically stable tragedy lovers

This book is amazing. Its pacing and subject matter reminded me somewhat of Les Miserables. And it pretty much confirmed my opinion that Thomas Hardy is the most depressing creature ever to walk God's earth. Those of you who appreciate tragedy will love this... you poor souls...

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Jul 09, 2012 Gary McTiernan rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is a real roller-coaster ride. Following the mayor from his drunken decision to sell his wife and infant daughter to his final act of desperation is an engrossing tale of perfidy and happenstance. At its moral center is Elizabeth-Jane, the mayor's long lost daughter who bears a strong resemblance to Jane Eyre, another nineteenth century heroine who doesn't expect much from life except the freedom to live in accordance with her own code of honor. There are plenty of plot twists and richly ev...more

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Apr 01, 2013 Susan rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. The Mayor of Casterbridge is an interesting book. The characters have distinct (though subtle in some cases) personalities and seem very "human" to me, e.g., sometimes they just did/said stupid things and sometimes didn't learn their lessons! In my experience, although we all like to believe that we learn from our mistakes, there are times when we are not quite as self-aware as we think.

The plot was full of winding paths that kept looping back. The past and the present were both important, but i...more The Mayor of Casterbridge is an interesting book. The characters have distinct (though subtle in some cases) personalities and seem very "human" to me, e.g., sometimes they just did/said stupid things and sometimes didn't learn their lessons! In my experience, although we all like to believe that we learn from our mistakes, there are times when we are not quite as self-aware as we think.

The plot was full of winding paths that kept looping back. The past and the present were both important, but it seemed to me that the plot was dependent on the actions of the characters. I'm not sure whether I would consider this story plot-driven or character-driven - in some ways, plot and character are so intertwined that it's hard to separate them.

Of course, Michael Henchard led the way in memorability - he had a temper and would say things that got him into trouble and ended up pushing people away. His need to control situations and his roles, his need to dominate others through his tone or level of engagement (or lack thereof) ended up hurting him in the end. His inability to be honest about his mistakes and misjudgments led to his downfall and his isolation. Yet, I couldn't help rooting for him to finally learn his lesson and stop being his own worst enemy.

Susan is an interesting character to me in part because she is described as "simple" but I see her as street-smart. Though not book-smart or necessarily people-smart, she makes strategic decisions about what she does and when she discloses information. Elizabeth-Jane is another interesting character. She works to improve herself and move beyond her sense of inferiority. She's the one I'd like to see 10 years after the book ends to see what she's doing.

Farfrae - I have mixed feelings about him. He started out interesting but then, once he went off on his own, fell off the radar screen. He is the one whose development is mostly incomplete. Lucetta seemed quite one-dimensional at first and then switched and became one-dimensional in a different way! Newson seemed like a good guy but there was little of him in the story!

I initially thought of giving this a 3.5 but I've been thinking about the story - when a book stays with me, I have to give it a little boost to 4/5. Is it a great book? I don't think so. Is it an interesting story of how personalities and events are interwoven to affect people's lives? Yes, I think it is. And that makes it interesting to me. (less)

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Mar 03, 2009 Rashaan rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

Michael Henchard undoubtedly has to be a not-so-distant relative of American anti-hero Homer J. Simpson. The Mayor of Casterbridge serves as literary English grandfather to our own lecherous, lazy, and negligent father of America's longest running cartoon family. Bull-headed, dim-witted, and insolent, we cannot turn our gaze from the train-wreck that is Hardy's eponymous protagonist. Henchard is both repellent and fascinating. We know his ship is going down from the start of the novel--the story...more Michael Henchard undoubtedly has to be a not-so-distant relative of American anti-hero Homer J. Simpson. The Mayor of Casterbridge serves as literary English grandfather to our own lecherous, lazy, and negligent father of America's longest running cartoon family. Bull-headed, dim-witted, and insolent, we cannot turn our gaze from the train-wreck that is Hardy's eponymous protagonist. Henchard is both repellent and fascinating. We know his ship is going down from the start of the novel--the story is just a matter of when and how.

Not nearly as steeped with lush prose and reverence for Nature as his other works, Hardy's novelistic eye and acute attention to detail turns toward architecture and design. Perhaps the cut of stone and the structure of brick and mortar serves to compliment and edify our main character. The men in this story are the pillars to the narrative and the women, in this case, take a backseat from the limelight. Donald Farfrae, Henchard's handsome Scottish rival, is so amicably charming and clever, Hardy successfully persuades readers to gradually dislike and resent him because he antagonizes our anti-hero. Not an easy writing feat, by any means! Hardy's central characters are men of industry. Henchard represents old, bucolic agrarianism. Farfrae, an energetic lad from the North, ushers in technology and worker's rights. And the landscape that Hardy usually lingers on gets tossed aside, like Susan Henchard, sold to the highest and most convenient bidder.

Though many of the plot twists are easy to predict, The Mayor of Casterbridge's melodramatic storyline still holds intrigue because Hardy paints each character so vividly. We may be able to foresee what's in store for them, but we're never sure how they will react. Michael, Elizabeth Jane, his long-lost daughter, Lucette, his lost mistress, and Farfrae are each volatile elements. Watching them interact, with their clashing drives and unstable fears, is like watching Hardy, as mad scientist, experiment in his literary lab. Put your goggles and gloves on! Its great twisted fun to watch these sparks burst.

What we eventually learn at the close of the work is not new. Everyone is laden with guilt whether by deliberate action or by indirect association. Sin is gravity, bringing all of us down, literally and figuratively. A barrel of monkeys, Thomas Hardy is not. But what makes his work brilliant and why I can't keep from returning to him is that his writing is deftly evocative. The pivotal scene that hails Henchard's downfall is deliciously rife with details, the writing palpitates. See for yourself:

'I'll tell ye what--I won't sell her for less than five,'said the husband, bringing down his fist so that the basins danced. 'I'll sell her for five guineas to any man that will pay me the money, and treat her well; and he shall have her for ever, and never hear aught o' me. But she shan't go for less. Now then--five guineas--and she's yours. Susan, you agree?'
She bowed her head with absolute indifference.
'Five guineas,' said the auctioneer, 'or she'll be withdrawn. Do anybody give it? The last time. Yes or no?'
'Yes,' said a loud voice from the doorway.
All eyes were turned. Standing in the triangular opening which formed the door of the tent was a sailor, who, unobserved by the rest, had arrived there within the last two or three minutes. A dead silence followed his affirmation.
'You say you do?' asked the husband, staring at him.
'I say so,' replied the sailor.
'Saying is one thing, and paying is another. Where's the money?'

(less)

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Apr 11, 2009 RachelAnne rated it 1 of 5 stars

HATE! HATE! If the author doesn't even care what happens to his characters, how are we supposed to? The plot is obscenely contrived and moralistic. The verbiage is absurdly disinterested; at one point, I believe a character fleeing for her life is actually described as "earnestly" climbing a haystack as she tries to escape a mad bull. EARNESTLY? In high school, we had to read this and write an essay arguing whether the book was a tragedy or a comedy. I wrote that the tragedy was that in the fact...more

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Mar 11, 2009 Meredith rated it 4 of 5 stars

I read this in high school and again in college, and have to admit that I wouldn't have rated it so highly if I hadn't had the benefit of studying it as part of a course. I don't think I would have appreciated the subtleties of the story and characters without someone telling me what to look for. I also read this at a time when the other books I was reading all ended either on a cryptic or a tragic note, so it impressed me that someone could tell a story with an outcome that felt good.

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Oct 28, 2012 Pallavi Dhakal rated it 5 of 5 stars

From where do I start? This has been such a wonderful read. A story of a man's rise to success from nothing and then his fall to nothing. Thomas Hardy beautifully depicts his characters and through out the stories they are intertwined with each other, and they never loose their identity and charm.

The book teaches us very clearly towards the end as to how we need to appreciate each moment in life especially the happy moments. In the words of Hardy himself - "that happiness is but the occasional...more

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Dec 19, 2012 Mel rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 19th-century-fiction, victorian, victorian-lit

I really enjoyed this book. I'd seen a lovely film version of it, which I only remembered the beginning of so it was really good to read it and get the full story. Hardy's prose was simply amazing in this book, so many of the passages, particularly in the first chapter were, really striking. In the end I found myself feeling terribly sorry for Henchard. It was so interesting to see how he'd pulled himself together, and then it seemed that his world totally fell apart for no good reason. There wa...more

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Feb 23, 2013 Joy H. marked it as keep-in-mind

Shelves: selection-of-the-constnt-rder-group, adapted-to-film, want-to-watch-film, classic, can-be-read-online

Added 2/23/13.
"The group Constant Reader will start reading The Mayor of Casterbridge on Friday, March 01 [3/1/13].

According to a link at the GR book page, this book can be read online at: http://www.goodreads.com/reader/583-t...
(Click on button which says: "Read book".)

ADAPTED TO FILM:
"The Mayor of Casterbridge" (2001)
NETFLIX LINK: http://dvd.netflix.com/Movie/The-Mayo...
"This movie is: Dark, Heartfelt"
Cast: Ciarán Hinds...
DESCRIPTION: "In this made-for-TV drama based on a Thomas Hardy classic,...more

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Feb 10, 2013 Gavin Felgate rated it 3 of 5 stars

Having previously read Thomas Hardy's Under the Greenwood Tree, I was expecting a similarly light-hearted romantic novel, but this book proved to be anything but that.

In the first chapter the central character, Michael Henchard, drunkenly sells his wife to a sailor at Casterbridge fair, prompting horrified reactions from all bystanders. This action should set up Henchard as one of the most dislikable scoundrels in literature history; however, his character becomes more sympathetic when he wakes...more

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Jan 02, 2013 Courtney H. rated it 4 of 5 stars

Hardy took on tragedy from every conceivable vantage point, it appears. Here, the tragedy is of the protagonist's own making. Hardy subverts the concept of redemption in this book; the great redemptive moments are facades that crumble in the face of the characters own foibles, and what exists of true redemption comes too little, too late.

The story tells of the reunion of the Henchard family. It begins with Michael Henchard, in a drunken fit, selling off his wife and infant daughter to a sailor...more Hardy took on tragedy from every conceivable vantage point, it appears. Here, the tragedy is of the protagonist's own making. Hardy subverts the concept of redemption in this book; the great redemptive moments are facades that crumble in the face of the characters own foibles, and what exists of true redemption comes too little, too late.

The story tells of the reunion of the Henchard family. It begins with Michael Henchard, in a drunken fit, selling off his wife and infant daughter to a sailor at a fair. His wife, Susan, has enough of his antics, and goes willingly with the sailor. When we next meet Michael, he seems to be entirely reformed. He is a successful businessman, sober, and mayor of his town. After the sailor is lost at sea, Susan and her daughter are impoverished and go seeking Michael. Hardy sets up, here, the path to a happy ending for deserving characters. But this is Hardy, and there are always forces at work against the happiness of his own creations. Here, those forces are the characters themselves, notably Henchard.

Henchard has an almost pathological drive to his own destruction. He is the protagonist; and he is both Jekyll and Hyde. To steal from Toby/Aaron Sorkin, he is constantly shouting down his better angels; but standing alone, his better angels too rarely win out. But he is, for better or worse, the voice of the book. As a reader, I both disliked and rooted for Henchard--not to succeed on his current path, but to realize his flaws and be redeemed. But he does not. He's bullheaded, arrogant, desperately fixed on retaining his own power, and untrusting, and mean; and in the end he falls to a better man--but one who, because he is not the voice of the novel perhaps, I felt less affection for. Of all the tragic scenes in the book, the one that stayed with me is the one where Farfrae's fair succeeds and Henchard's doesn't. Of course that was the outcome; but it broke my heart, in part because what followed became, then, inevitable.

There are many twists and turns in the book, and the plot paces forward--better than his other books, I think. Though some of the twists seemed to unnecessarily turn the screws of tragedy and missed chances a bit too much, this is Hardy, and it is too be expected.

My husband just finished Les Miserables, one of my favorite books, and it got me thinking of the terrible parallels between the books: the fate of two redeemed mayors, the crumbling of incomplete rebirths, and the decisions each mayor made in the aftermath of their second life's collapse. Henchard is the weaker man and the sadder story. He came close to clutching at what he might have had; but because Hardy wrote him, he never quite made it.

I thought Jude was my favorite of the Hardy's I've read, but in reviewing this I wonder if perhaps Mayor edges it out. Henchard is, I think, the most complex, flawed character of all the Hardy characters I've read, and the battle of self that plays out throughout the book displayed some of Hardy's strongest writing and intriguing characters.(less)

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Jan 02, 2013 Arukiyomi rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 1001-books

Haven’t tackled Hardy for a while. I found the last effort (The Return of the Native) a bit of a tough read so I was glad to find that this was far from difficult. In fact, this has an opening chapter that even Ian McEwan would find hard to match.

From the outset and throughout the novel, you are presented with a captivating portrait of Michael Henchard. It’s a Hardy novel, so you know that he’s doomed from the start. But he starts off so rashly that you are left wondering if he’ll actually make...more

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Sep 05, 2012 Ralyyy rated it 3 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Aug 02, 2012 Sohini Banerjee rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: classics

Undoubtedly one of the most celebrated and widely read works of Hardy, The Major of Casterbridge was the first Hardy I ever read. I had to write a paper on this work and so like a diligent student I tried reading into every line and every page of this masterpiece. Maybe because I had a students' view on this, or otherwise, my verdict is that I did not like Hardy.

For all those who enjoy Hardy, I admit to his greatness and hence address his work as a masterpiece, but Hardy is a sad writer- his wor...more

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Jun 02, 2012 Konain rated it 5 of 5 stars

How many novels do you think are there that can make you cry? Or you do not care. You think that it an emotion which not worth exploring. That’s why you always want happy endings. Even if the story has to be turned on its head, even if some supernatural elements have to be introduced in perfectly normal tales, the end should be happy. Do you realize how many stories, movies, dramas must have been destroyed by this tendency of yours, which would otherwise have gone on to become legends. Legends l...more

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Apr 10, 2012 Ann rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction-general

I had not read the Mayor of Casterbridge for probably 15 years or so and decided to download it (for $0.99!) to my new Nook to read over vacation. Actually I hadn't read Thomas Hardy for some time and had forgotten not only how lyrical his descriptions are but also his wry sense of humor as a storyteller (well, Tess didn't have any wry humor but this book does...). For this is definitely a story being told and would do well being read aloud. Many plot flips and flops which is typical Hardy. The...more

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Dec 08, 2011 Normacarpenter rated it 4 of 5 stars

I think it's very difficult to identify one single, "favorite" book since for me it so often depends upon current mood, perspective, etc.; however, Thomas Hardy's Mayor of Casterbridge has been the one book that I can reliably pick up and read at any time and in any situation and love it just as much as the first time (the first time being required 9th grade English class reading).
This book has everything for me. It's a tragic tale of the conflicted human being Michael Henchard and the often fr...more

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Sep 24, 2011 Caitlin rated it 4 of 5 stars

I love Thomas Hardy! This book is a great read. The tone of "Casterbridge" is not as heavy handed as "Tess of the D'urbervilles" or "Jude the Obscure." The story is of a young drunkard, Michael Henchard, who sells his wife and child in a fit of pique. He feels that they are holding him back in life and that he married too young. A stranger sailor takes pity on Susan and her daughter and purchases them. Apparently in the Victorian age this was not unheard of. The morning after, Henchard is wracke...more I love Thomas Hardy! This book is a great read. The tone of "Casterbridge" is not as heavy handed as "Tess of the D'urbervilles" or "Jude the Obscure." The story is of a young drunkard, Michael Henchard, who sells his wife and child in a fit of pique. He feels that they are holding him back in life and that he married too young. A stranger sailor takes pity on Susan and her daughter and purchases them. Apparently in the Victorian age this was not unheard of. The morning after, Henchard is wracked with guilt and looks in vain for his wife and daughter. I didn't get a sense that he was looking for them out of love, but rather a sense of duty. 18 years later Susan and her daughter Elizabeth-Jane catch up with Henchard who has worked industrially to pull himself out of poverty and worked his way up to being Mayor of Casterbridge (a fictional depiction of Dorchester.)Part of his success was his kept vow to not drink for 21 years to make up for his behavior. Although it seems as though he got away with his heinous behavior, there is a darkness and a volatility inside Michael still. When Susan shows up again he remarries her after pretending that they just met and he takes his daughter to be his step-daughter. The plot then has some twists and turns that I will not get into. But the most intriguing part of the book is Henchard himself. He confides in his friend about his immoral act, and although Donald never mentions it Henchard becomes convinced that Donald is holding it over his head as a threat. Henchard becomes more and more paranoid and the dark moodyness begins to overwhelm him. Henchard is not an unsympathetic character, but the readers' feeling toward him are those of pity rather than affection. The light of the story is his daughter Elizabeth-Jane. She is smart, intuitive and forgiving and she reaches out to her father even after his cruel rejection of her. Donald is not the rival that Henchard believes him to be and though they experience a role reversal that leaves Henchard out in the cold, it is all due to Henchard's unraveling. It is a sort of self-fullfilled prophecy. The question of fate appears in all of Hardy's works and this book artfully challenges the reader to think on Henchard's situation. Did his wife come back and spark his undoing as a matter of fate,as if it was meant to be as punishment for his misconduct so many years previous? That all of his successes are meaningless? Or was it something in the very fabric of Henchard's being that caused the events of the story? It is a provoking quandary that we can all relate to. Is the misfortune and fortune of our lives conducted by chance and our own decisions, or was it fated to be that way?(less)

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Aug 19, 2011 Tania Brzovic rated it 5 of 5 stars

I read this novel in English class, like most people probably did. It was one of the best assigned to us.

Hardy is a gifted author. He writes in a clear style with vivid descriptions that really bring the setting alive, without making the reader (at least this reader) feel inundated with boring, unnecessary detail.

The thing that I look for most in a novel, however, is quality characterizeations, and this book had them in spades. Dialogue was used effectively to flesh out characters. These are n...more

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About Thomas Hardy

Thomas Hardy, OM, was an English author of the naturalist movement, although in several poems he displays elements of the previous romantic and enlightenment periods of literature, such as his facination with the supernatural. Though he regarded himself primarily as a poet and composed novels mainly for financial gain. The bulk of his work, set mainly in the semi-fictional land of Wessex, delineat...more

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