num_pages: 327
description: Michael Henchard is an out-of-work hay-trusser who gets drunk at a local fair and impulsively sells his wife Susan and baby daughter. Eighteen years later Susan and her daughter seek him out, only to discover that he has become the most prominent man in Casterbridge. Henchard attempts to make amends for his youthful misdeeds but his unchanged impulsiveness clouds his relationships in love as well as his fortunes in business. Although Henchard is fated to be a modern-day tragic hero, unable to survive in the new commercial world, his story is also a journey towards love. This edition is the only critically established text of the novel, based on a comprehensive study of the manuscript and Hardy's extensive revisions.
language: English
title: The Mayor of Casterbridge
titlecomplete: The Mayor of Casterbridge
characters: Elizabeth-Jane Newson, Donald Farfrae, Susan Henchard, Richard Newson, Michael Henchard, Lucetta Templeman
genres: Fiction, British Literature, Classic Literature, Literature, Classics, Novels, 19th Century, Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction, Victorian
ratings_count: 61193
places: Wessex, England, Dorset, England, United Kingdom
publisher: Signet Classics