The Mayor of Casterbridge (Oxford World's Classics) [Paperback]

Thomas Hardy (Author), Rick Moody (Introduction)

Book Description

Series: Oxford World's Classics | Publication Date: August 7, 2003

Featuring a stunning Introduction by popular author of The Ice Storm and Demonology Rick Moody, this special edition of The Mayor of Casterbridge is a tie-in to the A&E Television Network adaptation of Thomas Hardy's critically acclaimed novel. In a surprisingly personal essay, Moody names the saga "the first great novel about alcoholism," and delivers penetrating insight into the character of Michael Henchard and the crippling deficiencies that foretell his ruin.
The Mayor of Casterbridge opens with an act of such heartlessness and cruelty that it still shocks readers today. Michael Henchard, an out-of-work hay-trusser, gets drunk at a fair and for five guineas sells his wife and child to a sailor. When the horror of his act sets in the following morning, the wretched Henchard swears he will not touch alcohol for twenty-one years. Through hard work and acumen, he becomes rich, respected, and eventually the mayor of Casterbridge. Eighteen years pass before Henchard's fateful oath comes back to claim its due. Upon the return to Casterbridge of his wife and daughter, Elizabeth-Jane, Henchard's fortunes steadily decline. He clashes with his business assistant, Donald Farfrae, who soon becomes his major rival. He ruins his business through impulsive speculations and takes to drinking again. One by one he forfeits his possessions and relationships to Farfrae. Soon Farfrae owns Henchard's business and his house, has gained the affection of his lover Lucetta, and has even become the mayor of Casterbridge. In a final insult, Farfrae marries Elizabeth-Jane. Having lost everything he once possessed, Henchard is forced to face himself in his most tragic and desperate moment.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Thomas Hardy, (1840-1928) was a novelist, short story writer, and poet of the naturalist movement, who delineated characters struggling against their passions and circumstances. The bulk of his work, set mainly in the semi-imaginary county of Wessex, is marked by poetic descriptions, and fatalism.

Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (August 7, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195168445
• ISBN-13: 978-0195168440
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #808,163 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Tragedy? More Like Melodrama!, March 21, 2004

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A. Ross (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Mayor of Casterbridge (Oxford World's Classics) (Paperback)

When it comes to "classics" of Victorian literature, this is certainly much more readable than most, and while it presents some memorable characters, and plenty of themes worthy of high-school English essays, it's hard to take it very seriously in many ways. Like many novels of the era, Hardy's was first published in a serial format in an illustrated magazine (The Graphic), and then collected as a book. This, no doubt, accounts for why so many chapters end with a spectacular revelation or plot twist. It also explains why it often comes across as little more than a literate soap opera, chock to the brim with misunderstandings, coincidences, and the mighty hand of fate. Indeed, while many seem content to classify it as a tear-inducing tragedy, I found it to be far too calculated and melodramatic to truly qualify as tragedy.

There is no doubt that the prologue chapter is a masterpiece: a poor family traveling through rural Wessex stops for dinner at a small hamlet. There, young husband and father Michael Henchard gets drunk on rum and grows belligerent, eventually going so far as to sell his wife and child to a passing sailor. The next chapter leaps ahead almost twenty years, where we find that Henchard has pulled himself together to become a repentant and prosperous hay merchant and mayor. He hires a passing Scotsman to become his right-hand man-just the first of several characters that will come to the small town of Casterbridge and bring change. Soon, as in a good film noir, Henchard's past misdeeds come back to disrupt his position.

Henchard is certainly one of the great flawed characters of literature, given to fiery bursts of temper and bullheadedness, but also surprising moments of compassion, and a running penchant for being his own harshest critic. He does much throughout the story that is is to be condemned, and yet he remains a sympathetic and pathetic characters, one never able to escape his nature. Some have compared his relationship to the Scotsman as that of Saul to David, but this is a facile parallel that only works in the broadest sense. It's more satisfying to view Henchard as representing the early Romantic era of Victorianism, with the emphasis on brute force, emotion, and becoming self-made through hard work-in contrast to the Scotsman, who represents the coming Industrial era, with the emphasis on intellect and ingenuity.

So, there's clearly plenty food for thought in the book, but that doesn't change the fact that it's built on the wildest coincidences, contrivances, and misunderstandings. The other major flaw in the book is the women, who are passive tokens with zero depth. They exist in the book as objects whose possession represents triumph or failure, but rarely engineer their own fate. While this is certainly in keeping with the position of women at the time, it gets old quick when read from the mode. All in all, it sounds like the most accessible of Hardy's work, and even the most impatient reader is unlikely to get bogged down. For those who still can't be bothered, there was a nice adaptation for British TV that came out in 2003 and a silent version that was done back in 1922.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Tale of Twists and Turns, October 25, 2003

By 

"okadbub" (West Linn, Oregon United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Mayor of Casterbridge (Oxford World's Classics) (Paperback)

The Mayor of Casterbrdige by Thomas Hardy is an intricatly created tragedy full of unexpected surprises, short comings, and demises and published full of ideals far ahead of the times. The tale tells of rags to riches (and then to rags again), good versus evil, love won and lost, pain and suffering, and of sudden realizations. Your brain will be spinning as you reach the final page and the antidotes will haunt you for years to come.

While the novel is good read it is often seen as cluttered with unnessecary descriptions of landscape and architecture. The flowery words are geniusly spread throughout dramatic plot twists, however. The novel is not for the light-at-heart readers, but is a treat for the lover of classics or the brave student of literature looking for a different read.

2 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars henchard, a man of absolutly NO character!, June 4, 2004

By 

theshortmad1wivmessyhair "Amy" (essex, england) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Mayor of Casterbridge (Oxford World's Classics) (Paperback)

My GOD this book was boring!! I was forced to read it for my English coursework and I think I was the ONLY person in the class who read the whole thing, and I only did that so I could say how rubbish it was without people saying "how can you say that without reading the whole thing??"

The characters had no personality. None at all! Especially the women who seemed to be prizes or props that showed the men as acting with duty. (Susan and Elizabeth Jane: aka drip drip and drip drip jr.) The plot twists? What plot twists???? The flowery language and p a g e s of description had me banging my head on the desk in frustration.

Why o why did we have to read this book? Other classes got Frankenstein, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde or Sherlock Holmes. What did we get? Over 300 pages of boredom.

The only points I enjoyed in the slightest were that Lucetta was pregnant and that Henchard called E-J "Izzy". The rest...

I pity the people who think this book is a "classic"; you must have read some really awful books.