num_pages: 359
description: Hardy, Thomas. The Life and Death of The Mayor of The Story of a man of Character. Wood Engravings by Peter Reddick. London, The Folio Society, 1990. 15 cm x 23 cm. 335 pages. Original, illustrated hardcover with gilt lettering on spine. Excellent condition with only very minor signs of external wear. Clean inside with solid binding. The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886), subtitled The Life and Death of a Man of Character, is a novel by British author Thomas Hardy. It is set in the fictional town of Casterbridge (based on the town of Dorchester in Dorset). The book is one of Hardy's Wessex novels, all set in a fictional rural England. Hardy began writing the book in 1884 and wrote the last page on 17 April 1885. Within the book, he writes that the events took place before the nineteenth century had reached one-third of its span. Literary critic Dale Kramer sees it as being set somewhat later—in the late 1840s, corresponding to Hardy's youth in Dorchester. (Wikipedia) Thomas Hardy was born in a cottage in Higher Bockhampton, near Dorchester, on 2 June 1840. He was educated locally and at sixteen was articled to a Dorchester architect, John Hicks. In 1862 he moved to London and found employment with another architect, Arthur Blomfield. He now began to write poetry and published an essay. By 1867 he had returned to Dorset to work as Hicks's assistant and began his first (unpublished) novel, The Poor Man and the Lady. On an architectural visit to St Juliot in Cornwall in 1870 he met his first wife, Emma Gifford. Before their marriage in 1874 he had published four novels and was earning his living as a writer. More novels followed and in 1878 the Hardys moved from Dorset to the London literary scene. But in 1885, after building his house at Max Gate near Dorchester, Hardy again returned to Dorset. He then produced most of his major The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886), The Woodlanders (1887), Tess..
language: English
title: Life and Death of the Mayor of Casterbridge
titlecomplete: Life and Death of the Mayor of Casterbridge
characters: Susan Henchard, Richard Newson, Donald Farfrae, Michael Henchard, Elizabeth-Jane Newson, Lucetta Templeman
genres: Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction, Novels, Literature, Victorian, Classic Literature, Classics, British Literature, Fiction, 19th Century
ratings_count: 61197
places: Dorset, England, Wessex, England, United Kingdom
publisher: Macmillan Pub Ltd