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The Mayor of Casterbridge

by Thomas Hardy, Keith Wilson (Introduction and Notes)

3.70 · rating details · 9,722 ratings · 624 reviews

Edited with an Introduction and Notes by Keith Wilson.

Paperback, 393 pages

Published April 29th 2003 by Penguin Classics (first published 1886)

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Oct 07, 2007

Elizabeth rated it

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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Nov 24, 2008

Laura rated it

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

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 other...more

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May 10, 2008

Gavin rated it

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

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...moreWhen 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

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 11, 2010

Christopher H. rated it

· 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 re...more

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Mar 03, 2009

Rashaan rated it

· 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...moreMichael 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?'

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Apr 11, 2009

RachelAnne rated it

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...more

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Mar 11, 2009

Meredith rated it

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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Dec 08, 2011

Normacarpenter rated it

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 ...more

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Sep 24, 2011

Caitlin rated it

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 mor...moreI 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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Sep 01, 2011

Angel♥ added it

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

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Aug 19, 2011

Tania Brzovic rated it

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...more

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Jul 22, 2011

Edwina rated it

This is the second Thomas Hardy novel I've read lately and again it is a masterful piece of writing - cleverly constructured and a pleasure to read.

Compared to the assessment of the novel on Wikipedia where it is described as a "tragic" story, I would disagree - It isn't as unremittngly gloomy as I might have expected, given the moments of brightness with Elizabeth-Jane, the character of Farfrae, Henchard's ability to build himself up to status of mayor and neat final roun...moreThis is the second Thomas Hardy novel I've read lately and again it is a masterful piece of writing - cleverly constructured and a pleasure to read.

Compared to the assessment of the novel on Wikipedia where it is described as a "tragic" story, I would disagree - It isn't as unremittngly gloomy as I might have expected, given the moments of brightness with Elizabeth-Jane, the character of Farfrae, Henchard's ability to build himself up to status of mayor and neat final rounding off in the last paragraph.

There is also a neat balance of characters - Henchard, Elizabeth-Jane, Farfrae, |Lucetta, Susan and Newson. Although the story is subtitled "The story of a man of character", I think that the story is as much Elizabeth-Jane's and Farfrae's as a story of Henchard.

It is also a story of place - a kind of homage to a lifestyle and place which is carefully and lovingly described. The opening reflects the time of Hardy's childhood and Casterbridge is akin to Dorchester where Hardy had recently moved to before writing the story. Much of the main incidents of the story are placed at locations around the time such as the Corn Market, the position of the bridges

Someone else has judged the story to be like a soap opera and the novel was indeed originally published as a serial, so that view is not far off the mark.

I like the way that the writing leaves some things cleverly unsaid - ie the relations between Henchard and Lucetta. (sorry, still can't work that situation out!)

Great stories are universal and I also saw some modern parallels of fallen politicians and other famous figures where past lives have come back to haunt them! Indeed the story is itself also that of the old versus the modern, the development of Casterbridge as town in relation to the surrounding countryside and the story of Henchard in relation to the modern man - Donald Farfrae.

Overall, I think that I might go back and re-read some of his other books that I've read before and I'd encourage everyone else to read or re-read Thomas Hardy's books as well.
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Apr 02, 2011

H.I. Al-Muhairi added it

Recommends it for: Lovers of classics.

Recommended to H.I. by: We had to read and study this for English.

Shelves: classics, school, drama, 2011

I wouldn't have picked this book if not for school, and I'm not sure yet if I'm glad or not I read this. That's why I'm leaving the rating open.

Over-analyzing sort of it killed it for me.

I did think Hardy was a genius for coming up with a rich plot so masterfully woven, and an irony we readers find in every corner. It made me wonder about life's full cycle and how things come back to point zero at the end.

The characters, as I was reading the book, felt like ...more

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Jan 20, 2011

Russell rated it

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Hardy is a master of tragedy, his characters suffer due to circumstances and their own actions driven by their character. I read "Tess of the d'Urbervilles" before this novel, and even though I think Tess is a better novel, more luminescent writing and Hardy cranks the tragedy to 11 in that, Casterbridge is still a fine novel. Henchard destroys himself, mostly because of pride, and helped by fate. He's rash in some moods, acting in ways that burns his conscience afterward. He's larger ...more

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Jan 13, 2011

Dave Morris rated it

I got marooned in Somerset by snow and freezing fog. I came down with a foul cold. If not for the snuffles and being on land I could have been mallemaroking. Oh, and for the lack of fun; the only novel in the medieval manor house where I was staying was this. My wife said give it a go. A page or two in, I was reaching for the tissues and wondering whether to read British Birds instead. Then Hardy delivered a sucker punch of a plot twist, so audacious I couldn't believe it. And from that moment I...more

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Aug 27, 2010

Jenny rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: classics, for-blog-giveaways

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I saw the movie for this long before I ever read the book. It’s not one of the more common Hadry books that you come across and therefore I had just never gotten my hands on a copy of it. A hard back copy finally came up on Paperback Swap about 2 months ago so I ordered it and received it. At the time I was too busy to even finish reading the book I was in the middle of, so when I was finished I started reading it and another book at the same time. This was the second one to be finished! I LOVE ...more

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May 17, 2010

Ann rated it

Best book I've read in a while. If some books are worth putting down because they are too depressing, others (like this one) are worth devouring for the same reason.

Bitter irony stacked upon heaps of previous bitter ironies permanently invested me in this horrible character that I hate to love. And Hardy can't even let the happy ending for the one truly good character stand--he MUST qualify it with the lesson that happy endings aren't very happy if your life has taught you that hap...more

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Apr 06, 2010

Samuel rated it

· review of another edition

Hardy's best novel by far, IMHO. I've watched the BBC version of this drama 3 times now...very faithful rendition. Book is even better. Absolute work of genius. Loved the extraneous details about the relics of the Roman empire left scattered about Casterbridge. And Hardy clearly demonstrates his love of language in this work. Now, for the moral of the story...this one has stayed with me for months...and will probably remain with me for life. Hardy has a deep love of the Bible...and s...more

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Feb 22, 2010

Jess rated it

Hardy believes that the market controls a man's fate as readily as the fickle gods of Ancient Greece and presents the fall of the Mayor of Casterbridge in such an extreme light that it lost all sympathy for me.

At the end, Hardy simply had nothing meaningful to say for the living about coping with the tragedies of life except the age-old and useless maxim, "Life sucks and then you die." The novel's last words are as follows, despairing and hopeless, fatalistic if not sui...more

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May 17, 2009

Adrian Colesberry rated it

This was my first Hardy. I read it back in high school and it blew me away. His writing is the most beautiful prose of any of the Victorians. It's impossible not to fall in love with it. I'm a fast reader and I spent the book making myself read slower. It's either in this book or in The Return of the Native where there's a long description of a walk through a heath that is poetry.

Hardy's plots all have to do with inevitable tragic consequences devolving from petty and sometimes inco...more

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Oct 31, 2011

Amanda rated it

Shelves: classics, 2011

Of the four books by Thomas Hardy that I've read now, this is my least favorite. There were a lot of good points about it, sure. I liked that in the end, honesty won. I liked the statements it made about dishonesty, manipulation, and selfishness. It had a lot of good moral points. On the other hand, the writing was less than brilliant for me. Much of the plot was overly predictable, and the characterization was very sloppy, especially for Henchard. He waffled so much and so often that at times I...more

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Jul 28, 2011

Phil rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: pre-20th-century

The characters in this book are sort of like the characters from Paradise Lost--the interesting characters are unlikable, and the likable characters are boring. Henchard and Lucretta are probably the most interesting characters because they're conflicted, and the novel primarily focuses around their conflicts, but they're both so flawed that it's hard to really sympathize with either of them. Even at the end, when Henchard has fallen to his lowest point, he's pityable, but not really sympathetic...more

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Mar 14, 2011

Catie rated it

Shelves: classics, read-in-2011

It’s been about 12 years since I’ve read a Thomas Hardy novel (he was a big favorite in the dark teenage years). I was a huge classics buff as a kid. Ironically, I’ve spent my adult years reading a ton of cheesy YA. Apparently the universe has a sense of humor. Not in a Thomas Hardy novel though. In his world, the universe is capricious and exacting. Don’t get too comfortable or make plans, because nothing is permanent and difficulty abounds.

This book opens with Michael Henchar...moreIt’s been about 12 years since I’ve read a Thomas Hardy novel (he was a big favorite in the dark teenage years). I was a huge classics buff as a kid. Ironically, I’ve spent my adult years reading a ton of cheesy YA. Apparently the universe has a sense of humor. Not in a Thomas Hardy novel though. In his world, the universe is capricious and exacting. Don’t get too comfortable or make plans, because nothing is permanent and difficulty abounds.

This book opens with Michael Henchard – out of work, travelling by foot with his wife and infant daughter, and unhappy with his lot. Upon reaching a local fairground, he becomes drunk and in a moment of misery and loathing, decides that he will be much better off without his family. He then proceeds to auction them off, jestingly at first, until a man takes him up on his offer. So, of course that will never come back to bite him on the ass. Obviously. I really thought that I knew where this book was going several times over, only to be completely disproven each time. Apparently I should have expected much more from the guy who actually invented the cliffhanger (it’s true!). This story has more twists and turns than a Mexican soap opera. Every time I would get settled in, it was like Thomas Hardy was there saying, “But wait! There’s more!” Henchard awakes the next morning, full of remorse, and makes a vow to abstain from alcohol for 21 years (as long as he’s been alive). He then makes his way toward Casterbridge, “a old hoary place o’ wickedness, by all account.” There he finds his fortune quickly reversed. But when his wife and daughter return eighteen years later, can his fortune hold?

I loved the setting of Casterbridge – the town itself is as much a character as any of the main players. The people are kind and open, but also fickle and resentful of the wealthy elite. Donald Farfrae is the perfect epitome of progress – he’s young and ambitious, and he brings wealth to the town, but he also brings ruin to those following the old ways. Also, apparently Thomas Hardy was aware of the supreme rule of male popularity that every romance novel writer knows: a young Scottish guy who occasionally wears a kilt and sings heartbreaking ballads about his “hame” will beat out any other type of guy every single time.

I was initially bored with Elizabeth Jane, but by the end I felt that she really embodied Hardy’s ideal of surviving life’s struggle. She’s realistic and stoic. She calmly tells Henchard, “I don’t quite think there are any miracles nowadays.” She ends in prosperity, but lives on with the knowledge that the worst is always around the corner. It’s easy to read this book and think that Hardy’s message is, basically, “life sucks and then you die.” But I think that he’s much more…well, hopeful’s just not the right word. Hardy has always shown accurately the world’s cruel and unexpected turns of fate, but I think what he’s really saying here is that none of it is really worth anything if you can’t spend the harsh, horrifying journey with someone you love. But love can't be forced, and if you can’t appreciate the love that’s right in front of you, you don’t deserve to keep it.
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Nov 05, 2011

Jeanetta rated it

I read this book in high school and missed so much. With more life experience and an interest in social issues this is a facinating tale of real people. I don't agree with Hardy completly, but he brings up so many social issues that were not popular to talk about when the book was written.

I have firends who complain that all Hardy novels are dark and depressing. I find they are realistic. The main characters are flawed and make mistakes anyone can make. Hardy wants people to s...more

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Jan 25, 2010

Jeanette rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: classics, adult, family-secrets, tragedy

Thomas Hardy is a male Jane Austen writing tragedies revolving around men. In The Mayor of Casterbridge Michael Henchard, his wife Susan and their baby daughter Elizabeth Jane wander into a town during festival. Henchard enters the fermity tent with his young family where he drinks to excess, begins to bemoan his life with his wife Susan resulting in him placing her up for auction. Although Susan gives warning to cease this tired behavior, he ignores her and she is sold to a wandering sailor ta...more

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Nov 19, 2010

Patrick Gibson rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: contemporary-literature

Hardy mixes the comical here with the sorrowful so you're at once, entertained and saddened by the events; the largest of which brings on the sale of one man's wife and child to another; a moment which both liberates and destroys the main character through-out the story. Competition and jealousy figure prominently in the time line, which covers many years in the lives of a few sad people. You could say Michael Henchard was doomed from the 1st chapter. He certainly is haunted by his past to the p...more

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Mar 09, 2010

Cindy rated it

I never read The Mayor of Casterbridge in high school, but I'd heard good things from friends who did. It's a great book; I only wish I'd read it sooner. The novel chronicles the downfall of Michael Henchard, the mayor of Casterbridge - but it's not nearly as depressing as you'd think as a lot of the ensuing calamity is brought on by Henchard's own actions and shortcomings. The story opens with Henchard selling his wife and child in a drunken fit one evening and the next morning, after realizing...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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Quotes from The Mayor of Casterbridge

“…happiness [is] but the occasional episode in a general drama of pain.” — 3 people liked it

“Her companion, also in black, appeared as a well-formed young woman about 18, completely possessed of that ephemeral precious essence youth, which is itself beauty, irrespective of complexion or contour.” — 1 person liked it

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