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'The woman is no good to me. Who'll have her?' 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.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Having waited until middle age to read a Hardy novel (while long an admirer of his poetry), I will definitely not be waiting until old age to read a second. In The Mayor of Casterbridge, Hardy examines great themes, still highly relevant today: is our character what determines our fate, or are we at the mercy of forces beyond our control ? Is progress an unalloyed good ? How far can we defy convention before social bonds break ? All of these questions are thrown up in the context of a well-paced and carefully plotted, complex tale, that (for all its occasionally strained coincidences) moves - not without humour that's still fresh today - towards seemingly inevitable tragedy. Suffused with both classical and biblical references, it's a story that bears comparison with Shakespeare's tragedies in a way that, say, Dickens' lighter tales generally don't.
And though the world of The Mayor of Casterbridge is at heart the bleak story of Michael Henchard, a wilful, impetuous man who rises from humble beginnings to great heights, only to be brought low again by his own shortcomings, it is also one where devotion can call forth love, as Henchard's relationship with his step-daughter Elizabeth-Jane Newson belatedly demonstrates. Is happiness `but the occasional episode in a general drama of pain', as the last page of the book seems to suggest ? That's certainly one conclusion you could draw from all of this. But the last word seems to go to Elizabeth-Jane, who seems, more than the other characters, to represent Hardy's own point of view, and who acknowledges that `the doubtful honour of a brief transit through a sorry world' can be `irradiated at some half-way point by daybeams rich as hers' (310).
This Oxford World's Classics edition comes with helpful explanatory notes and a thought-provoking introduction from Pamela Dalziel, musing on how Hardy draws on the past to, on the one hand, question conventional notions of progress (as represented by Henchard's nemesis, Donald Farfrae) while on the other advocating a new social order based on `the loving-kindness that Hardy believed alone could minimize the pain of existence' (xxiii). A great read, and one that will resonate with you long after you've put it down.
And though the world of The Mayor of Casterbridge is at heart the bleak story of Michael Henchard, a wilful, impetuous man who rises from humble beginnings to great heights, only to be brought low again by his own shortcomings, it is also one where devotion can call forth love, as Henchard's relationship with his step-daughter Elizabeth-Jane Newson belatedly demonstrates. Is happiness `but the occasional episode in a general drama of pain', as the last page of the book seems to suggest ? That's certainly one conclusion you could draw from all of this. But the last word seems to go to Elizabeth-Jane, who seems, more than the other characters, to represent Hardy's own point of view, and who acknowledges that `the doubtful honour of a brief transit through a sorry world' can be `irradiated at some half-way point by daybeams rich as hers' (310).
This Oxford World's Classics edition comes with helpful explanatory notes and a thought-provoking introduction from Pamela Dalziel, musing on how Hardy draws on the past to, on the one hand, question conventional notions of progress (as represented by Henchard's nemesis, Donald Farfrae) while on the other advocating a new social order based on `the loving-kindness that Hardy believed alone could minimize the pain of existence' (xxiii). A great read, and one that will resonate with you long after you've put it down.
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful
This never seems to garner the same loving affection that the other Hardy novels do, perhaps because Michael Henchard is such a difficult man to empathise with. And yet it's one of the most tragic of novels in the inexorable way that his downfall happens.
From the opening scene with its shocking outcome, to the twists of revelations about Henchard's personal life, and the delicate romance between Farfrae and Henchard's daughter, this is classic Hardy. Downbeat, pessimistic and unrelenting, this is a powerful read.
There are lots of editions of classics available now at a reasonable price, but I like these Oxford World Classics because of their lovely new covers and the notes that they contain.
From the opening scene with its shocking outcome, to the twists of revelations about Henchard's personal life, and the delicate romance between Farfrae and Henchard's daughter, this is classic Hardy. Downbeat, pessimistic and unrelenting, this is a powerful read.
There are lots of editions of classics available now at a reasonable price, but I like these Oxford World Classics because of their lovely new covers and the notes that they contain.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
3 reviews
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Great book
12 Feb 2010
Amazon Verified Purchase
I loved the book! It is not for the faint of heart as it takes a little more time to read....the old English. The story is classic.
0 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Fast but not as Advertised
11 Sep 2010
Amazon Verified Purchase
Book came in speedy fashion but was not the edition advertised. I had to purchase another.
1 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Depressing
12 May 2009
Hardy was a naturalist in whose novels everything goes wrong. Michael Henchard is a drunk who "sells" his wife Susan and infant daughter Elizabeth-Jane to a sailor. Susan doesn't realize the sale is bogus because she is "simple," throws her ring away, and leaves with the sailor. When he sobers up next day, Henchard searches all over for his lost family, and finally enters a church and swears an oath over an enormous bible that he will not drink from his current age of 21 to double that age. Meanwhile, and 18 years later, when the sailor dies, Susan, with Elizabeth, comes looking for Henchard at Casterbridge. He is now a corn merchant and mayor of the town. As a teetotaler, he is described as drinking glass after glass of water at table for a town hearing. Eventually Susan, via Elizabeth-Jane, contacts Henchard and he pens a note suggesting that they meet at the "Ring." This last turns out to be a ruined Roman amphitheater or coliseum, a 1500-year-old relic full of ghosts and whose very name symbolizes the dark past. Henchard and Susan agree to remarry, playacting a courtship for public appearances, and to keep the daughter in ignorance that the sailor was not her biological father. After they marry, Henchard and the manager of his business, Farfrae, have a falling out because the latter shows the former up and makes a fool of him, making himself more popular than the mayor. To make matters worse, Elizabeth-Jane falls in love with Farfrae.
Frankly, that's as far as I've gotten. I know how it ends for Henchard, but I won't spoil the ending. Hardy is a mean naturalist writer, and has no sympathy for his characters whatsoever. _Casterbridge_ was first published in 1886, when alcoholism was little understood - least of all by people like Hardy who didn't have the disease. It's all too easy for this author to condemn and be judgmental of alcoholic people. I would suggest for an alternative reading Eugene O'Neill's _The Iceman Cometh_, since O'Neill was himself an alcoholic and could rightfully speak for alcoholics. The subject, no matter in whose hands, is by nature depressing. All my editorializing aside, Thomas Hardy is a great novelist who has earned his place in the canon. His poetry is good, too. _The Mayor of Casterbridge_ is worth pursuing to the end if you're not an alcoholic.
Frankly, that's as far as I've gotten. I know how it ends for Henchard, but I won't spoil the ending. Hardy is a mean naturalist writer, and has no sympathy for his characters whatsoever. _Casterbridge_ was first published in 1886, when alcoholism was little understood - least of all by people like Hardy who didn't have the disease. It's all too easy for this author to condemn and be judgmental of alcoholic people. I would suggest for an alternative reading Eugene O'Neill's _The Iceman Cometh_, since O'Neill was himself an alcoholic and could rightfully speak for alcoholics. The subject, no matter in whose hands, is by nature depressing. All my editorializing aside, Thomas Hardy is a great novelist who has earned his place in the canon. His poetry is good, too. _The Mayor of Casterbridge_ is worth pursuing to the end if you're not an alcoholic.
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