Classic
The Mayor of Casterbridge
by Thomas Hardy
Summary
In a drunken rage at a country fair, the young hay trusser Michael Henchard sells his wife and daughter to a passing sailor, then swears off drink and rises over twenty years to become mayor of Casterbridge. Hardy brings the past back to Henchard's door and watches his pride, temper, and guilt dismantle everything he built, even as he aches for the love he keeps destroying. The novel is Hardy's most concentrated tragedy, built around one of fiction's most painfully human characters.
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Historical Context & Significance
Hardy published the novel in 1886, subtitling it A Story of a Man of Character. Its opening scene of the wife sale remains one of the most startling in Victorian fiction.