num_pages: 4
description: Thomas Hardy's powerful tale set in mid-nineteenth cantury Dorset tells the tragic story of Michael Henchard, a man who cannot escape his past. Drunk on rum at a country fair, Henchard sells his wife to a sailor for five guineas. Unable to find them and overcome with guilt and remorse he vows to be teetotal for 21 years. Many years later his wife seeks him out in Casterbridge, where he has gained wealth and the respected position of Mayor. His family restored to him, Henchard's happiness should be complete but beneath the surface still smoulders the same impetousness and temper which combine with fate to bring about his degredation and ruin.This dramatisation by Sally Hedges for BBC Radio 4 features David Calder, Susan Dale and John Nettles.
language: English
title: The Mayor of Casterbridge
titlecomplete: The Mayor of Casterbridge
characters: Lucetta Templeman, Donald Farfrae, Richard Newson, Michael Henchard, Elizabeth-Jane Newson, Susan Henchard
genres: Literature, Classics, Literary Fiction, Novels, Classic Literature, Victorian, 19th Century, Historical Fiction, Fiction, British Literature
ratings_count: 61201
places: United Kingdom, Dorset, England, Wessex, England
publisher: BBC Consumer Publishing