The Mayor of Casterbridge
About this book
Like many of Hardy’s novels, The Mayor of Casterbridge is set in the fictional county of Wessex in the mid 1800s. It begins with Michael Henchard, a young hay-trusser, drunk on rum, auctioning off his wife and baby daughter at a village fair. The next day, overcome with remorse, Henchard resolves to turn his life around. When we meet Henchard eighteen years later, temperance and hard work have made him wealthy and respectable. However, he cannot escape his past. His secret guilt, his pride, and his impulsive temper all serve to sabotage his good name.
The Mayor of Casterbridge was published in 1886, first as a magazine serial and then later that year as a book. It is perhaps most noteworthy for the psychological portrait of Michael Henchard, a tragic character who remains sympathetic while simultaneously being deeply flawed. Typical of other Hardy novels, it also vividly depicts life in the rural countryside at that time.
Subjects
- abbeys
- american fiction
- american fiction (fictional works by one author)
- atonement
- atonement -- fiction
- atonement in fiction
- british and irish fiction (fictional works by one author)
- children's fiction
- criticism and interpretation
- dictionaries
- domestic fiction
- england, fiction
- england in fiction
- english fiction
- english language
- english language, textbooks for foreign speakers
- english literature
- fathers and daughters
- fathers and daughters -- fiction
- fathers and daughters, fiction
- fathers and daughters in fiction
- fiction
- fiction, general
- fiction in english
- fiction, psychological
- fiction, romance, general
- hardy, thomas, 1840-1928
- korean
- large type books
- literature
- long now manual for civilization
- manners and customs
- mayors
- mayors -- fiction
- mayors in fiction
- men
- men -- england -- fiction
- men in fiction
- psychological fiction
- psychology
- psycology
- runaway husbands
- runaway husbands -- fiction
- runaway husbands in fiction
- separation (psychology)
- social conditions
- social life and customs
- textbooks for foreign speakers
- wessex (england) -- fiction
- wessex (england), fiction