The Mayor of Casterbridge Hardy, Thomas/ Perlman, Elliot (INT)

One evening of late summer, before the nineteenth century had reached one third of its span, a young man and woman, the latter carrying a child, were approaching the large village of Weydon-Priors, in Upper Wessex, on foot. (from the first line)

Michael Henchard, a callous grain merchant and mayor of the town of Casterbridge, finds that his cruel actions in the past, including his drunken sale of his wife and baby, have come back to haunt him. Reissue. *Author: Hardy, Thomas/ Perlman, Elliot (INT) *Publication Date: 2008/04/01 *Number of Pages: 373 *Binding Type: Paperback *Language: English *Depth: 0.75 *Width: 4.25 *Height: 6.75

From the Publisher:
Michael Henchard, a callous grain merchant and mayor of the town of Casterbridge, finds that his cruel actions in the past, including his drunken sale of his wife and baby, have come back to haunt him. Reissue.

Annotation:
Hardy's novel begins with the famous scene in which Michael Henchard, a young farmer, gets drunk at a village fair and sells his wife and baby daughter to a passing sailor for five guineas. The consequences of this impulsive act are regrettable and far-reaching, and culminate in Henchard's ruin and his death in obscurity as a lonely old man. Henchard is similar to the heroes of Greek tragedies who destroy themselves through weaknesses in their own character. (The subtitle of the novel is "The Life and Death of a Man of Character.")

Author Bio

Thomas Hardy

Born in Dorset, Thomas Hardy wrote about his native region all his life, calling it "Wessex" in his novels. Hardy was apprenticed to an architect at 15, but began to write novels in his spare time when he was in his 20s. His first novel was rejected by George Meredith, a reader for the publisher he sent it to, but he was considered promising, and Meredith encouraged him to try again. Hardy, who had also been writing poetry, gave it up temporarily for fiction, and his first novel was published three years later. He abandoned architecture for the life of a writer, producing a series of masterpieces that ended with "Jude the Obscure" in 1896. That novel's frankness and unsparing bleakness met with such a hostile reception that Hardy returned to writing poetry, which he continued to produce until the end of his life. His novels are strongly determinist, demonstrating the ways in which the forces of nature shape human existence: People are at the mercy of their passions; fate and chance rule their lives, and the only heroic path is endurance. His poetry contains similar themes, and all of his work is permeated with a melancholy that often turns to tragedy.

Product Attributes

Book Format:		Pocketbook
Minimum Age:		18
Number of Pages:		0373
Publisher:		Signet Classics

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The Mayor of Casterbridge (Paperback)

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